The court dismisses Afriforum’s unwarranted interdict against Rand Water with costs. This is the headline that is making rounds today.
Afriforum won a similar case in May 2023 against Rand Water (RW) when the Water utility company decided to cut the water supply to Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM).
GMM has been struggling to supply water to its residents due to several factors including Rand Water pumping at half capacity most of the time. Huge distribution losses also play a big part in not supplying water to every resident.
This was the opening paragraph of the post in The Bulletin dated May 11, 2023:
AfriForum won an order against Rand Water with costs in the Pretoria High Court today. In November 2020, Rand Water reduced the water pressure in several areas due to the Govan Mbeki Local Municipality’s inability to settle outstanding debts.
More recently residents have had to cope with lengthy periods without water, some areas such as Bethal have been coping with no water for over three months. Some residents claim that they have been without water for more than 120 days.
Afriforum based their case on a statement by GMM Democratic Alliance Councillor, Fiona Pelman, in a media statement of 29 November 2024, alleging that during a Portfolio Committee meeting with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), a member of Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature, Mr Speedy Mashilo, MPL, indicated that Rand Water had taken steps to reduce or throttle water supply in the GMLM by 50% due to the outstanding debt of more than R800 million that the Municipality owes to Rand Water.
Rand Water, according to the official GMM communications, regularly informed GMM that they are pumping water at half capacity (or none at all) due to “High Demand” in other areas as also seen by The Bulletin.
In court, Rand Water contested these claims by Afriforum and proved to the court that no formal decision to throttle or reduce the water supply to GMLM had been taken. Rand Water presented evidence to the court demonstrating that the allegations were unfounded.
After hearing arguments from both Rand Water and AfriForum, the court dismissed AfriForum’s application and granted a cost order against AfriForum. The dismissal was based on two critical findings:
- No throttling decision had been made by Rand Water. Rand Water successfully demonstrated to the court that it had not implemented any measures to reduce/throttle water supply to GMLM, rendering AfriForum’s claims baseless.
- Failure to establish urgency. The court ruled that AfriForum had failed to establish sufficient grounds for the matter to be heard on an urgent basis.
AfriForum’s premature application not only lacked factual support but mischaracterized Rand Water’s position on matters relating to its mandate of providing bulk potable water to its municipal customers. Rand Water perceives AfriForum’s sustained mischaracterization as part of the broader agenda of some sections of society to discredit the entity and its leadership. If AfriForum’s intentions were sincere, AfriForum would have engaged Rand Water to obtain the facts and Rand Water would have provided the required facts.
“As a state-owned entity, Rand Water has a huge responsibility to provide bulk potable water to municipalities in its areas of operation to enable municipalities to service their communities,” said Rand Water in a statement to The Bulletin, “Rand Water therefore pleads with organisations such as AfriForum and its affiliates to afford the entity a space to do so, rather than attempting to disrupt the entity from focusing on its mandate. In turn, Rand Water requests these entities to use their influence to persuade municipalities that owe Rand Water to pay for the bulk potable bulk water that they receive from Rand Water to ensure the sustainability of Rand Water.”
“Furthermore, these organisations can work with municipalities to reduce non-revenue water that municipalities are losing to ensure that most of the water that Rand Water supplies to municipalities reaches the communities they are intended for.”
“The ruling reinforces Rand Water’s transparency and commitment to supplying reliable and quality bulk potable water. The ruling further debunks misleading narratives that are aimed at discrediting Rand Water and its leadership while creating unnecessary public panic,” concluded the statement
But, in the meantime, residents have to live without water while the blame game continues between RW and GMM.
