Today the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Polokwane has reported Polokwane Municipal officials to the Public Protector South Africa to investigate their continued failure to provide sustainable and reliable water to the residents of Polokwane.
Polokwane Municipality in their legislated capacity as Water Service Authority (WSA) as well as Water Service Provider (WSP) has left some residents without water for years with no communication as to when water will be restored.
Our communities have endured prolonged water outages, inconsistent supply, collapsing infrastructure, and a complete lack of accountability from those entrusted with service delivery. Entire neighbourhoods have gone days and in some instances weeks without water. This is not only a gross violation of basic human dignity but a direct failure of governance.
Section 27 of The Constitution mandates access to water and the Water Services Act, 108 of 1997, stipulates that a consumer may not be without water for more than 7 full days per year.
Polokwane Municipality does not care about residents’ rights and has a flagrant disregard for our Constitution and the implementing legislation which ensures water provision.
Despite the South African Human Rights Commission’s recommendations in 2023 to Polokwane Municipality following and investigation in 2021 and the municipality’s admission that it is not providing water to all the residents within its jurisdiction, the water crisis has worsened.
We laid criminal charges against Polokwane officials on 12 March 2025, but to date did not even receive a case number; it is clear that no investigation was conducted by SAPS.
Residents of Polokwane do not care about political excuses, intergovernmental disputes, or endless technical reports and the blame game between water authorities; they just want water!
The DA will no longer tolerate Polokwane Municipality’s disregard to execute their mandate to provide water; we urge the Public Protector to expedite their investigation and to hold officials accountable.