Across SA, it has become common to see communities queuing at water tankers following days or even weeks of enduring dry taps. We have in the past chronicled how people in some rural areas of our province share drinking water, in heavily polluted sources, with pigs and goats.
Given this background, every taxpayer must be outraged to learn that municipalities have returned R1bn in unspent water infrastructure grants to the National Treasury over the past five years.
This figure was revealed by finance minister Enoch Godongwana in a recent response to a parliamentary question.
This was not surplus money. It was not funding no longer needed.
It was money specifically allocated to repair, upgrade and expand critical water and sanitation infrastructure through the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant.
Authorities constantly tell residents that there is “no money” to fix water systems.
But this crisis is increasingly not only about money. It is about capacity, accountability and political leadership.
The Eastern Cape municipalities come second in that list, having returned R261m of the R1bn to the Treasury in the past five years. North West is at the top with R309m.
In November 2025, co-operative governance MEC Zolile Williams expressed his frustration about municipalities failing to fully use their allocations.
Of more concern was that our two metros were on that list, which the MEC described as “utterly embarrassing given their size, resources and access to skills”.
The Treasury says mechanisms exist to deal with underperformance, including withholding and reallocating grants.
Yet year after year, the same pattern persists: budgets are announced, infrastructure projects stall, deadlines are missed and funds are surrendered back to the fiscus while residents continue suffering.
This is not merely administrative inefficiency. It is a direct assault on constitutional rights.
If municipalities repeatedly fail to spend critical infrastructure grants, stronger intervention is needed
In the main, this reflects SA’s dysfunctional municipalities where corruption derails infrastructure delivery, skilled professionals are often replaced with politically connected appointments, while oversight mechanisms remain weak.
The national government cannot continue treating this as routine underspending.
If municipalities repeatedly fail to spend critical infrastructure grants, stronger intervention is needed.
They must publicly disclose which municipalities returned funds, which projects failed, and which officials were responsible.
Consequence management must also become real.
Too often, accountability in local government ends with strongly worded statements while communities endure worsening conditions.
South Africans do not expect perfection from municipalities. They do, however, expect urgency, competence and honesty.
Sending back R1bn while taps run dry signals the exact opposite.
Water infrastructure is not a luxury project that can wait for better administration someday.
It is the foundation of public health, economic growth and human dignity.
A government that cannot spend money allocated for water during a national water crisis is not merely failing administratively, it is failing morally.
Daily Dispatch
