Drowning in the incompetence of water affairs

Confronted with fearful foreigners clutching their bottled water, upon a time one could proudly point out that South Africa’s tap water ranked among the top half dozen countries in the world. Alas, no longer.

Outside the major cities, drinking tap water is something of a lottery because of the collapse of so many sewage and purification works. The collapse, in turn, stems from a toxic combination of asset looting at municipal level and the African National Congress’ enthusiasm to be rid of experienced but non-black managers and technicians.

As a consequence, most of the major river systems are badly polluted because of failed sewage treatment, acid-mine drainage or because of uncontrolled industrial effluence. Food production, both for local consumption and export, is threatened and disease outbreaks loom.

Inevitably, it is the poor who are most harshly affected, though increasingly even the political elite should ponder whether they are going to have their sundowner Johnnie Walker Blue neat or with a dash of E coli bacteria.

Last month the Water and Environmental Affairs (WEA) minister, Buyelwa Sonjica, refused to release a report that details the breakdown in effluent processing in a majority of the 449 treatments plants assessed, out of SA’s total of 852 plants. The reason she gave was that the data would be “misinterpreted” and cause public alarm.

Astonishingly, after a few token squeaks of protest, the opposition Democratic Alliance meekly accepted the minister’s decision. But then there probably are not a lot of potential votes to be garnered for the DA in Dorpsville, SA.

Now Sonjica is again in the firing line. The Parliamentary oversight committee this week refused to accept her department’s shambolic annual report and summoned the minister appear to before it to answer questions.

Maggie Sotyu, the admirably independent ANC chair of the ANC-dominated oversight committee, questioned whether Sonjica had what it took to “put her foot down” and deal with the problems. She noted that the committee was “clearly agitated” over the state of WEA, with suggestions that WEA be abolished, to start from scratch.

The committee also found offensive the positive spin that WEA’s chief financial officer, Onesmus Ayaya, put on the auditor-general’s negative report and were particularly irked by WEA was still paying performance bonuses, or “rewarded for failure”, is how Sotyu put it.

The auditor-general had fingered Ayaya and WEA director-general Pom Yako for condoning R12,9-million in irregular expenditure and another R6,9-million in payment for services rendered without following the proper processes. Ayaya is still in office but under investigation, while Yako for more than a year has been on paid suspension regarding her alleged involvement in a R1,1-billion contract awarded to a company she had an undeclared interest in.

The committee bluntly accused WEA of lying and of being incapable of dealing with problems, of not having adequate records of water users and thus being unable to bill them, and not even knowing about the existence of all the dams in the country. That the WEA confessed to writing off two loans of R49,8-million and R27,2-million, the latter merely because the municipal borrower claimed it was unable to locate the loan in its books, did not improve matters.

The fiery Sotyu eventually called a halt to the WEA presentation, telling them to come back once they had answers to all the questions. She said she was embarrassed to be chief of water, the “worst portfolio” she had ever chaired.

What Maggie Sotyu did this week is something of a first — since 1994 no portfolio committee has refused to accept a ministerial annual report. Eventually it will be accepted, of course, but her independence will rankle in the ANC, making the path of her future political career interesting to watch. Cheers, Maggie!