South Africa's water crisis
- Thuto Gabaphethe and Thuli Zulu
Reflecting on South Africa’s history of resilience is not enough – access to water must be made a reality
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the State of the Nation Address (SONA) right at the time where many NGOs are devising strategies about bettering South Africa’s democracy in honour of 30 years of the South African Constitution. The President began SONA by applauding the 1956 movement, where thousands of women led by Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn marched to the Union Buildings to demand an end of oppression and unjust apartheid legal system through the segregatory pass laws. He also highlighted the significance of the 1976 youth movement where thousands of learners marched against the use of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in schools and where, ultimately, 176 learners were killed.
As we reflect on the significance of these events and their being mentioned during SONA, we wonder what the 1956 and 1976 generations would say about the status of service delivery in municipalities around the country – especially regarding the water crisis?
The history of SONA
SONA started with the rich history of resilience through the struggles of oppression that the peoples of South Africa have endured. Although it has also become a fashion show for those who attend, it is also a reflection of the diversities of the peoples as we know them. Most importantly, though, it is one of the sessions where all the three arms of the state are observed as the executive sets out its plans before the legislature and judiciary. As such, it is also a momentous event for accountability and allegiance to the people and their Constitution. In this year’s version, the President dealt succinctly with some of the existent challenges of the country but accountability as well as the water crisis requires specific mention.
Women, youth and water
1956 was not just about pass laws, nor was 1976 just about Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. These women and young people were anti-apartheid activists committed to the struggle of ending racialised oppression. Although after the 1956 protests, women were still required to carry passes, both protests were important as a reflection of resistance and the exercise of both women and young people’s agency as part of the struggle.
We all know that apartheid legislated not only racialised access to certain areas but also racialised access to basic services and in this case the pass and education laws were used as part of this legislated segregation. The system of apartheid denied black people not only access to certain areas and opportunities but also clean running water, sanitation, electricity, waste removal, and healthcare as a direct consequence of its racialised spatial planning policies.
The mention of these generations as part of this year’s SONA should therefore not just be a moment to honour and celebrate but should also be a moment of reflection and call to action. Although the water crisis reared its ugly head in parts of Johannesburg just weeks before the SONA culminating in specific action, it is clear that the crisis is prevalent in other parts of the country and has dire consequences including on black women and the youth.
Some of these parts include the Eastern Cape province community of Ward 17 in Mquma, Toboyi Komkhulu who have resorted to the courts after having not had water for decades. The effects of the lack of water on this community and on women and the youth in particular was highlighted by Sonke Gender Justice, Equal Education Law Centre and I-Menstruate who were admitted as friends of the court and presented examples of how lack of access to water in especially rural communities exacerbates particular forms of discrimination including gender related inequalities. An excerpt from the court papers filed by one of the community leaders reads:
“To meet their water needs, residents need to collect up to 8 to 10 buckets daily (from the surrounding rivers and streams). Women and young girls in their menstrual period must collect more water during this time. The collection of water has an element of risk associated with it. For instance, many women and girls do not feel safe when they fetch water from the rivers and streams and carry pocket knives to protect themselves. Moreover, the water must be collected at dawn, while it is sometimes dark. This is when is its cleanest because the cattle and sheep have not gotten to it by that time.”
As such, the dire consequences of lack of water for some communities goes beyond just taking a shower. In November 2025, a court order directed the non-responsive Amathole District Municipality to provide a short and long-term water plan, and this community awaits to see if their efforts will yield any results. In contrast to the community of Mnquma, is the Limpopo Province’s community of Elandskraal and surrounding villages who have despite having taken a similar court approach and getting a favourable order in 2015, still remained without water.
Of course, these communities, their women and youth are affected in comparable ways much like many other communities who either don’t have water at all, or access to it is unreliable. What is clear however is that this water crisis has been looming for several years: from Cape Town’s Day Zero in 2018, to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) reports on the crisis’ impact on schools, girl children, women and on the attainment of gender equality. What is left is to wonder whether both the 1956 and 1976 generations would have anything to say about the current state of affairs.
Endless task teams and lack of accountability
In the Limpopo province, owing to the Sekhukhune District Municipality’s own unresponsiveness, the community through the assistance of the Right to Protest Project and CALS submitted a petition to the President in 2021 calling for amongst other things, a task team to be established on the persisting water crisis. In 2022, the same community petitioned the Select Committee on Petitions and Executive Undertakings culminating in an inspection in loco as well as a report adopted by the National Council of Provinces. Both these petitions and efforts have not yielded any results. However, perhaps the hope for all these communities lies in the establishment of the National Water Crisis Committee (NWCC) by the President last Thursday.
It is not clear whether the President can be held to a real standard of accountability for SONA pronouncements, except for when they are debated in the week that follows the address. An example in point is the inquiries established by both the President and Parliament to investigate allegations of criminality and infiltration to the security cluster last year. It is clear from the ongoing testimonies onto these allegations that a task team that had been established by the President in his 2018 SONA on Politically Motivated Killings in Kwa Zulu Natal Province is part of the root causes of the problems Lietenant General Mkwanazi highlighted on 6 July 2025.
This task team either seized to exist or failed to adequately perform its functions to finality raising serious questions about where accountability begins and ends for the task teams that the President establishes. South Africans from different sectors of society have even complained about these never-ending task teams. In this year’s SONA at least two task teams were established while in 2025, a National Dialogue was established whose substantive outcomes or progress is not even clear from what was in the address in 2026.
Nonetheless, the President highlighted that the NWCC is established in the same breath through which the National Energy Crisis Committee was established in July 2022 as part of interventions to end loadshedding and achieve national energy security with specific priorities and an action plan whose progress despite shortcomings is visible. Perhaps as the parliamentarians debate the SONA and others present plans and specific priority areas for the NWCC, these plans will also include the plights of communities in Mnquma and Ellandskraal along with other rural and peri-urban areas more urgently.
It is clear that the NWCC tasks are not only about attending to an immediate and urgent crisis but a constitutional one that our courts have affirmed such as in the Constitutional Court in Mazibuko and Others v City of Johannesburg and Others. What the current crisis does, however, is to also re-visit the question about whether rights-based approaches (through litigation) are always the most appropriate ways of ending inequality and systematic exclusion: a call for alternative means of community collaboration and action.
Both the President and Minister Pemmy Majodina are correct – “Poor planning and inadequate maintenance of water systems by many municipalities are the main cause of the problems we are going through now and are the reason that taps often run dry.” This failure by Municipalities in instances where even court orders are not capable of being complied with calls for urgent measures which the NWCC must lay out without delay.
While we wait for the white paper on local government and with fifty-six Municipalities facing criminal charges as the President reported, it may also important for the NWCC to plan for when criminality is found to be the cause of the crisis or when there is just simply recalcitrance by Municipal officials on what is not only a basic necessity but also a constitutional imperative.
Conclusion
Harnessing the courage of 1956 women, the spirit of the youth of 1976 and the democracy of the people of South Africa, we are reminded that our Constitution was never meant to be something we celebrate once a year and then forget about. It was meant to work, in real life, for real people.
When thousands of women marched to the Union Buildings led by leaders like Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, they weren’t asking for praise. They were demanding dignity. When young people in Soweto rose up in 1976, they weren’t fighting for applause or statistics, they were fighting for a future. So, 30 years into our constitutional democracy, we have to ask: what would they say about the current state of affairs?
Thuto Gabaphethe and Thuli Zulu are both based at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, 91心頭利 University.