Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Buyelwa Sonjica has a tricky job. She needs to manage the implementation of the 1998 water Act, and try to ensure that black farmers gain access to water resources without cutting into the productivity of commercial farms; she must accelerate the delivery of sanitation services, currently embarrassingly behind schedule; and she must oversee the empowerment process in a forest industry dominated by large multinationals.
All of this work overlaps the responsibilities of other Cabinet portfolios, but Sonjica manages almost no implementation budget.
Why is sanitation delivery still so far behind target, and what are you doing about it?
We are no longer directly responsible for delivery; we set norms and standards. But we have to assist local government to mobilise the funding based on where we see backlogs.
In the last budget, local government got R1,2-billion for sanitation. We have to ensure that the money is utilised and achieves its intended purpose. But there are concerns, because the president has set targets for us to do away with backlogs by 2010, and there is some panic — if that’s not too strong a term. In the process we are beginning to pick up that the standards are not necessarily adhered to.
How can you get more control of performance in other spheres of government?
The intergovernmental relations Bill will create some mechanisms. At the moment there is nothing formalised. We are in a situation where we can’t hold municipalities accountable; they have been given powers by the Constitution and yet we have to develop a policy for them. They are accountable to the Department of Provincial and Local Government and we don’t really know where we fit in.
Given its areas of overlap with departments like agriculture and environment affairs and tourism, what is the rationale for the continued existence of your department?
We have the national water resource strategy that we have to roll out and it is a very comprehensive programme for water resources management and water resources development. It is a very technical process that needs specialised people. We also have a monitoring and regulatory role — you can’t have departments implementing and monitoring themselves.
Should you be charging more for water, and should there be differential pricing that favours emerging black farmers?
We are among the cheapest in the world. We will be reviewing the pricing strategy, and everything else will flow from there. But while we are redressing we don’t want to kill commercial farmers. They constitute the first economy, and they must continue growing while we bring up emerging farmers. There’s no intention to target white farmers. We have nationalised water, but there are various usages that are of benefit to the economy. The operative word is equitable. We won’t just take water for the sake of it.
Some commercial farmers say they lost an existing right when water was nationalised in 1998, and that they are due compensation?
The Constitution says that if there is a good reason to compensate, then we should go that route. We’ll respect that. But the infrastructure that these farmers have that gives them a monopoly was heavily subsidised by the previous government. So the method of acquisition will determine how we compensate.
How is the re-allocation of water resources going to proceed?
We anticipate that it will take seven years. When we start allocating we are going to target areas that are stressed in terms of availability of water: there is inherent conflict in that situation because there will be competition between emerging farmers and commercial farmers, given the relative scarcity of water in those areas. It’s a transformation project. If people won’t let go of the water that they are using we will have to force them, by licensing or interfering with the flow of water on to their properties.
Is anything new happening to transfer state-owned forests to broad-based black economic empowerment [BEE] groups? And will they be brought into the stalled Komatiland privatisation?
We are hoping that the next phase of the process will bring in more broad-based groups as smaller parcels are dealt with. I can’t comment on Komatiland, which is being dealt with by public enterprises. We are also looking at aforestation in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal … we want to bring in broad-based BEE. Not just the big companies.
Is that sustainable, given the impact of forests on water resources?
That’s the big question. As time goes on it’s going to be a very relevant concern, given all the predictions of what will happen with climate change. In the long term we will have to look at other options, we will have to look at the sea and desalination to provide potable water, so we may have to review this policy.