South Africa’s diamond city losing its shine

Residents and businesses of the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality in the Northern Cape have expressed frustration with the city’s aging and vandalised infrastructure, which is buckling under pressure.

This has led to service delivery failures. particularly water and sanitation services, that impact their daily lives and raise serious concerns about public health and safety.

One of the main problems is the widespread sewage spillages into residential areas, water sources, and other land.

The Sol Plaatje Municipality, centered around the city of Kimberley, was established following the restructuring of local government in South Africa in December 2000.

The “City of Diamonds”, Kimberley, the municipality’s primary city and province’s capital, is historically significant due to the diamond rush that began in the late 19th century.

This boom transformed the region, attracting fortune seekers and contributing substantially to South Africa’s economic growth.

The city’s history is deeply intertwined with the development of the Cape Colony and, later, South Africa itself.    

However, the municipality has been facing serious challenges, receiving qualified audits for the past five years.

At the end of 2024, Sol Plaatje Municipality was downgraded to a Grade 4 municipality due to its escalating financial challenges, marked by rising debt and diminishing funding due to insufficient revenue collection.

This has dashed the municipality’s hopes that it would eventually transition into a metro.

While it will have a knock-on effect on the salary scales of staff members, it will also have a knock-on effect on the amount of funding received through grants.

“Given the poor state of water and sewerage systems, in addition to a critical lack of bulk infrastructure to support development, this does not bode well for Kimberley,” said DA councillor Chris Phiri.

Following this downgrade, the ANC in the North West recalled the Mayor, and the Speaker subsequently resigned.

NCOP member and former MEC, Barbara Bartlett took over the reigns of the municipality in December 2024.

Additionally, former Transport Minister and Premier of the province Dipuo Peters was controversially appointed as Speaker.

Three months into the new leaders at the helm, BusinessTech visited the municipality home to over 270,000 residents.

Service delivery challenges

The most commonly cited service delivery challenges that residents and businesses cited relate to water and sanitation.

In 2024, the South African Human Rights Commission (the Commission) said it was “inundated” with complaints concerning inadequate access to water and sanitation services within the Sol Plaatje Municipality.

These complaints include (but are not limited to):

• Sewerage leakages and lack of provision of water services negatively impact the entire city and surrounding areas.
• Poor management of wastewater treatment plants and flooding issues.

The Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS) No Drop Report is a national assessment tool used to evaluate municipalities’ performance in managing water losses and ensuring water use efficiency.

According to the most recent report, Sol Plaatje received a score of 53%.

Aging asbestos pipes frequently burst, causing water outages and contamination. Major bursts are quickly repaired, but smaller ones linger, worsening issues.

Kimberley’s rapid growth further strains the aging infrastructure, impacting water, sanitation, and poorer communities most.

According to the report, significant improvement is needed, particularly in areas such as comprehensive water balance reporting, consistent meter maintenance, and establishing a dedicated water loss management team.

Additionally, there are prolonged issues with malfunctioning wastewater treatment works (WWTWs), causing overflowing sewage across the municipality.

According to DWS’ Green Drop Report, which examines the state of WWTWs, Sol Plaatje has a risk rating of 96.3%, which is deemed critical.

These malfunctions at the plants ultimately pollute water sources, decimating the ecosystems and putting residents at risk.

Recently, DWS laid charges against Sol Plaatje municipality regarding the prolonged dysfunctionality of the Homevale WWTW and its devastating effect on Kamfers Dam.

The dam used to be world-renowned as home to the largest lesser flamingo population in the southern hemisphere.

“This is no longer the case due to Sol Plaatje municipality’s gross inability to manage water levels and address water quality issues caused by raw sewage flowing from the Homevale WWTW into the dam,” said DA councillor George Josheph.

There have also been numerous instances where sewage has overflowed back into residential areas.

“There have been so many problems with sewage, which has gotten worse and worse over the years,” said resident Terri Jonker. “We used to swim in a lot of these rivers, but now you’ll get sick,” she added.

BusinessTech visited one of the main plants, which showed limited functionality. The majority of the machinery was idle, and workers cited constant cable theft due to a lack of adequate security. This results in many sewage leaks.

Sol Plaatje response

Recently, Sol Plaatje Mayor, Martha Bartlett, launched a R2.5 billion water refurbishing project.

She said that this project involves installing 33km of large-diameter pipes to replace aging infrastructure, reverse water losses, and improve the quality of the water supply.

Bartlett said that R400 million had already been spent and that it is going to create at least 1,000 job opportunities

The municipality has also said that it has allocated funds for repairs, maintenance, and upgrades, but it concedes that its budget is constrained given its below-par collection rates and large debt.

However, critics claim that this is rather a result of poor fiscal and project management, given the qualified audits for the past five years running.

Regardless, the mayor remains optimistic, telling the SABC that “with this bulk budget infrastructure program that we are having here, we are about to make sure that we don’t have these[water and sanitation] challenges anymore.”

Opposition councillors from across the board have said that they are cautiously optimistic of the work of the new mayor, citing her efficient responsiveness to concerns raised.

For many, like the decimated tourism businesses along the Kamfers Dam, wildlife killed by water contamination, or the residents of White City whose homes and belongings were destroyed by a massive sewage spill, the relief cannot come soon enough.

BusinessTech contacted the municipality for further comment, but it had not received a response by the time of publication. This will be added once it is received.

Photos of idle parts of a WWTW in Kimberley