Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cllr Suzette Steyn and Sesotho soundbite by Cllr Kabelo Moreeng.
Several Mafube towns and townships were without water this past weekend due to a shortage of treatment chemicals. As usual, municipal management shifted blame to residents, claiming that non-payment of municipal rates and taxes caused the crisis.
The acting municipal manager issued a letter on 14 November 2025, urging residents to pay their bills so the water supply could be restored. On 17 November 2025, the mayor sent another letter to councillors stating unequivocally that there would be no water if bills were not paid.
It is, however, illegal to deny an entire community access to water because of individual non-payment. Mafube is both a water services provider and a water services authority. Under the Water Services Act 108 of 1997, the non-provision of water to towns is unconstitutional and illegal, even during financial collapse.
Municipalities have a constitutional and statutory obligation to provide a minimum level of basic water services to all residents.
The Constitution guarantees everyone the right to access adequate water and obliges the state, including local government, to take reasonable measures, within available resources, to progressively realise this right.
The Water Services Act stipulates that municipalities must provide alternative water services if the supply is interrupted for more than 24 hours, except in cases of individual non-payment.
Alternatives must include at least 10 litres of potable water per person per day. National policy and municipal by-laws also require a minimum free water supply, typically six kilolitres per indigent household per month, which may not be disconnected.
At a Special Council Meeting on 19 May 2025, the council adopted several policies (Credit Control and Debt Collection, Bad Debt Policy, and Water and Electricity By-Laws).
None have been published, gazetted, or released for public input, yet residents are already receiving Notices of Intention to Disconnect Services based on these documents.
The DA welcomes the municipality’s effort to resume revenue collection (most residents received accounts for the first time in three years), but urges acting municipal manager, Jamela Selapyane, to publish the policies and have the by-law gazetted for public scrutiny.
As the company appointed through a CoGTA transversal contract has only begun data cleansing, numerous disputes are expected.
Residents with outstanding debt may arrange payment terms, settle in full for a discount, or lodge a written dispute if they disagree with the account. Unresolved cases may require legal assistance.
Legislation only permits withholding payment when disputing an incorrect charge or a prescribed amount; non-payment due to general dissatisfaction with service delivery is not allowed. Residents should keep records of incorrect charges or services not received.
The Democratic Alliance continues to monitor the situation with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), and the Human Rights Commission.