Molweni. [Good day.] Good afternoon, Chairperson, Madam Minister, hon members and guests, in terms of section 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, all citizens should have the right to sufficient water. In 2004 the then president, Thabo Mbeki, in his state of the nation address, told South Africans that within the next five years all households would have access to running water.
Nine years have passed since that speech and that objective, and that constitutional requirement has still not been attained. South Africa still has communities and numerous and vast rural areas that do not have access to potable water. This figure currently stands at 41%.
Apho ndihamba khona, ezilalini nasezilokishini, abantu bakhala njalo besithi abanamanzi. [Where I visit, in the villages and the townships, people always complain that they have no access to water.]
I still see women of various ages who spend a third of their day carrying and fetching water from various sources. Some of this water is not suitable for human consumption, contaminated by industry, mining, farming, poor sanitation and poor infrastructure management. As a government, we have failed to uphold and implement our very own Constitution in terms of access to water.
The solution to the problem is not rocket science. We have an excellent five-year national water resource strategy. The challenge is to simply and effectively implement this plan. At the national level of government, we can plan, strategise and source funding, but without the commitment from the role-players throughout the chain of events, we cannot implement our plan. We cannot achieve our plan if we do not have the support, commitment and accountability of our water boards, our district municipalities and particularly our municipalities of local government. This is where the fundamental challenge lies with no or poor implementation of water projects and related services. A plan not implemented is a plan failed.
If one considers that the 12 water boards in South Africa had a collective budget to spend almost R3 billion on capital projects in 2012, when in fact only 69% of that amount was spent, this equates to a spend of just over R2 billion, resulting in a massive shortfall of almost R1 billion. Little wonder then that we are unable to reach our objectives. Underexpenditure on capital projects is inexcusable and smacks of poor leadership and management in certain of our water boards, district municipalities and municipalities.
It is also alarming to note that outstanding debt owed to water boards currently stands at R2,3 billion, of which R1,3 billion is in arrears. The bulk of this debt is owed by municipalities. Again, then, one can understand why certain of our water boards were unable to spend on their capital projects as the very money owed to them is currently funding their operation. It is unacceptable that municipalities are not paying within the prescribed time for the purchase and supply of water. This is directly impacting on our mission and goals.
A further hindrance to the debt collection is the lack of signed service level agreements with certain clients of the water boards. Again, clearly this is an indication of poor leadership and management, lack of planning and poor control. Another area of concern is the lack of effective metering; in some cases absolutely no metering of water supplied to clients at all - this from boards and municipalities.
One cannot possibly run an effective service and determine the financial implication and costs if you do not know what is being consumed. Without this fundamental information it is impossible to determine correct costing and accurate billing. Therefore, it is not surprising that, according to the National Treasury, some of our boards have failed to meet their key performance areas.
On the matter of the enormous amounts of money owed to water boards by the municipalities, the SA Local Government Association, Salga, remains silent and appears hellbent on protecting, and trying to justify, nonperforming and dysfunctional municipalities. Instead, it focuses its energy on trying to establish an independent water regulator to determine water prices. This is not going to address our challenge of supplying every home with water. If anything, it is creating another bureaucracy and just a further challenge and another sideshow.
Two of Salga's mandates are clearly to transform local government to enable it to fulfil its developmental role and to develop capacity within municipalities. Perhaps what Salga should do is go back to its purpose and its principle and assist those municipalities to deliver. Current infrastructure and water reticulation are in most cases poorly maintained. It is estimated that our overall water loss could be as high as 60%, resulting from failing and poor infrastructure, and compounded by incorrect or no metering. In the municipal sector alone, this 60% would equate to R11 billion per annum that is lost.
The current local government equitable share which is allocated to municipalities and assists approximately 59% of all the households in South Africa has a 10% factor built into it for the provision of maintenance. It is abundantly evident with failing water infrastructure in municipalities and the high water loss that this money is not being used for what it should be. The new municipal water infrastructure grant, which will be introduced and is budgeted for 2013-14 to the amount of R603 million, increasing to R1 billion in the following year, is to address backlogs in 24 metros and district municipalities.
However, the challenge is whether these municipalities have the necessary skills and capacity to implement these projects. They have not succeeded to date, so what will change now? Is this just a case of throwing money at the problem? Will Ugu and Sisonke District Municipalities just have bigger and better jazz festivals this year? Ugu is already spending R1 million on a jazz festival next month. Will our municipalities continue to employ incompetent and unskilled people in key positions, as in the case of the previous municipal manager in Sisonke District Municipality, where a recent court ruling found that he was incompetent? Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]