MALAIKA MAHLATSI | Ratanda water protest deaths were foreseeable and preventable

A week ago, two young men died during protests over prolonged water shortages in the township of Ratanda, south of Heidelberg.

They were shot by police during a confrontation with residents who had taken to the streets demanding reliable water after weeks of constrained supply in the area.

The crisis in Ratanda began in mid-June when Rand Water reduced bulk water supply to the Lesedi local municipality owing to mounting and unpaid debt. The municipality owes the bulk water utility just over R27m and has repeatedly failed to honour payment arrangements.

The deaths of the two men sparked fresh anger and calls for the mayor, Mluleki Nkosi, to step down. Protesters blocked water tankers with burning tyres and rocks and burned the mayor’s home. Though there was some damage, he escaped unharmed.

There is legitimate collective anger about what happened in Ratanda. Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi visited the bereaved families with Nkosi and other senior government officials and political leaders.

The water crisis in Gauteng is an inevitable outcome of decades of poor water governance and political inertia

The visits were dismissed by many, with relatives of the deceased arguing it meant nothing to them and vowing to pursue action pending the results of the men’s autopsies.

For its part, Rand Water, which is in no way the responsible party in the tragedy, has granted the Lesedi local municipality a two-week grace period to allow the municipality to receive its equitable share and settle outstanding debt. Water supply has since been restored to the municipality.

Analysts and many South Africans have correctly described what happened in Ratanda as a crisis of political failure and are shocked the situation got to that point. However water governance specialists, myself included, had long predicted this outcome.

In 2023 I completed a master’s in water resource science at the Institute for Water Research at Rhodes University. My research was focused on equity dimensions and governance drivers of water security challenges in Hammanskraal, a township north of Tshwane.

For years, communities had protested over water access and quality and had largely been ignored. In the thesis, I argued that water had become a serious environmental and political question in South Africa, one that would shape not only the economy, but voting outcomes too.

I argued protests over water would escalate in numbers and posture and would continue to be violent and unpredictable. It is an argument I have made many times in opinion pieces across different publications.

Nearly half the water Rand Water supplies to the province is lost before it reaches consumers due to the deteriorating state of water infrastructure and related factors

It is by no means a profound revelation. Anyone who has observed the water crisis unfolding in our country should easily come to the same conclusion.

The water crisis in Gauteng is an inevitable outcome of decades of poor water governance and political inertia. For many years, municipalities have failed to maintain water infrastructure, resulting in massive losses of non-revenue water.

Nearly half the water Rand Water supplies to the province is lost before it reaches consumers due to the deteriorating state of water infrastructure and related factors.

At the centre of this crisis is decades of poor planning, corruption and the failure to ring-fence resources for water, something every water governance specialist has recommended precisely because we recognise that without municipalities paying Rand Water what is due, the utility cannot build much-needed water infrastructure, most of which it does with its own revenue constrained by continued non-payment.

The inevitable consequences of poor water governance were laid bare in Ratanda and other parts of the province over the years.

The tragedy is not only the deaths of young people who had every reason to protest for a fundamental human right, but also that what happened in Ratanda will more than likely happen in another community.

Sowetan