{"id":851682,"date":"2026-03-07T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=851682"},"modified":"2026-03-06T17:32:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:32:52","slug":"one-municipality-in-south-africa-violating-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/851682\/one-municipality-in-south-africa-violating-human-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"One municipality in South Africa violating human rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pensioner Margaret (not her real name) has lived without a reliable supply of running water for more than a decade, in ward 5 of the Lekwa Local Municipality in Standerton, Mpumalanga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret supports a household of four on social grants. It has now been three weeks since a water tanker last came to her area. To get water, she must pay R150 for a bakkie to fetch and fill her buckets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She cannot afford to do this regularly. Instead, she lines the street outside her home with dozens of buckets, waiting day after day in the hope that a tanker will arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it does, she cannot carry the buckets herself. So she has to pay someone between R50 and R60 to carry water into her house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis has been going on for nearly 15 years. Last time we got water in our house was a tiny bit in the night of winter last year,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is like they don\u2019t see us as human.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaret, who bought her house in 1992, is not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents across the Lekwa Local Municipality say they have endured dry taps since the early 2010s. For years, water flowed intermittently between midnight and 4 am. Now, many areas receive none at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DA MP Angel Khanyile raised the matter with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), saying the municipality has repeatedly failed to meet its own deadlines to restore supply, including a December 2025 target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2021\u00a0SAHRC report<\/a>\u00a0found systemic failures in basic service delivery in Lekwa, particularly in water and sanitation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These included prolonged outages without adequate alternatives, contaminated drinking water, and extensive leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission cited deteriorating infrastructure, financial mismanagement, and outdated planning, and told the municipality to ensure a minimum daily water supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the launch of the report in 2024, Commissioner Philile Ntuli said little had changed. \u201cThe continued lack of access to water violates the residents\u2019 rights in terms of section 27(1)(b) of the Constitution<\/strong>,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Water and Sanitation\u2019s 2023 Blue Drop report, which assesses the quality of drinking water and how well municipalities manage their water treatment systems, gave Lekwa a score of 33.53%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reflects extremely poor water quality management. Its No Drop score, which measures how effectively municipalities prevent water losses through leaks, pipe bursts and poor metering, was 0%. This indicates a complete failure to manage water losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe tankers are not enough\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n
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The municipality, which is currently under national administration, attributed water supply challenges to ageing infrastructure dating back to the 1970s, decades of neglected maintenance, limited funding, and skills shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Municipal spokesperson Lubabalo Majenge said demand exceeds supply capacity, particularly in high-lying areas such as Sakhile Extension 2 in Ward 5, necessitating the use water tankers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he did concede that \u201cthe tankers are not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Majenge said the crisis worsened after one of four water pumping units broke down, reducing the municipality\u2019s ability to extract and process sufficient water for distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excessive algae growth in the Vaal River has also clogged filtration systems at the Standerton Water Treatment Plant, further constraining supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Majenge said the breakdown should to be fixed soon. He added that the municipality is refurbishing the Standerton Water Treatment Plant with support from the Department of Water and Sanitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khanyile said the crisis could have been avoided. She blamed chronic underinvestment in infrastructure maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Auditor-General\u2019s most\u00a0recent report, the municipality disclosed spending just R462,909 on repairing and maintaining its infrastructure, including water systems, in its annual financial statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same report found that the municipality had lost water worth R230.6 million, equivalent to 69% of all water flowing through municipal pipelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do not think anything is going to happen. I fought for freedom, and now I think I am going to die without water,\u201d Margaret said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Seth Thorne for GroundUp<\/em>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents of the Lekwa Local Municipality have faced water challenges since the early 2010s, which have been deemed human rights violations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":851687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[10919],"class_list":["post-851682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-groundup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":851688,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851682\/revisions\/851688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}