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Mail & Guardian

National Water Act

latest news & developments
AFRIFORUM

Criticism of Rand Water’s Zanzibar investment is misguided

AfriForum cannot, on one hand, criticise state-owned entities for their perpetual reliance on bailouts and on the other hand, also criticise them when they engage in secondary…

  • Malaika Mahlatsi
5 min read
Wastewater: An overflowing drain flowing in a town in Mpumalanga. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
BLUE SCORPIONS

Mpumalanga municipality slapped with record R650m penalty for years of raw sewage spills

In a landmark ruling, the Emalahleni local municipality was ordered to fund major repairs after pleading guilty to persistent sewage pollution that contaminated rivers feeding…

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
Residents, community organisations and civil society groups across Johannesburg have united to demand urgent action to end the city’s deepening water crisis. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
NATIONAL WATER ACT

Beneficial use of water is a matter of (public) trust

The new water quotas along race lines are not in the interest of any of South Africa’s people

  • Bill Harding
8 min read
The role of smallholder farmers, who make up the majority of farmers, is crucial. (Gallo)
AGRI SA

Race-based water licence allocations draw ire of farmers

Government says the draft rules are to address the disparities in access to water use left over from apartheid

  • Sheree Bega
13 min read
Foul: Church members worship on the banks of the Klip River, a heavily polluted river. Photo: Ihsaan Haffjee/Getty Images
CITY OF JOHANNESBURG

City of Johannesburg slapped with directive over raw sewage pollution into tributary of Klip River

The directive orders the city to stop untreated waste from entering rivers

  • Sheree Bega
4 min read
A Cape Town civic organisation says former minister of water and sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu has “usurped” the powers of the water tribunal by uplifting the suspension of a water use licence issued to the developers of the multibillion-rand redevelopment of the River Club in Observatory, Cape Town.
AMAZON

Sisulu and her adviser implicated in R4bn Cape Town development with Amazon as tenant

Lindiwe Sisulu and her adviser are accused of meddling in a R4-billion development in a sensitive Cape Town area meant to house Amazon’s Africa office

  • Sheree Bega
12 min read
Costly cleanup: Mine waste water is poisoning rivers. (Paul Botes/M&G)
CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS

Sisulu: Third of audited mines violate conditions of water use licence

The water and sanitation department has not revoked or suspended water use, ‘but this remains an option’

  • Sheree Bega
2 min read
On the bottle: The 82-year-old James Mutle has to pay youngsters to chase after trucks that deliver drinking water otherwise he and others have to buy bottled water. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
COUNCIL FOR SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH

‘We are paying for this dirty water’

Despite the SA Human Rights Commission declaring the water in Hammanskraal unfit for consumption, citizens are being forced to buy their own

  • Sarah Smit
  • Malcolm Sekgothe
7 min read
People in the township of Khayelitsha near Cape Town have been managing water shortages for ages.
CITY OF CAPE TOWN

Bold steps are needed toward a ‘new normal’ that allocates water fairly in SA

South Africa is a water-scarce country where inequity and a lack of fairness and justice pervades water distribution

  • Staff Reporter
5 min read
People in the township of Khayelitsha near Cape Town have been managing water shortages for ages.
CAPE TOWN

Bold steps needed for a ‘new normal’ that allocates water fairly

South Africa is a water-scarce country where inequity and a lack of fairness and justice pervades water distribution.

  • Mary Galvin
5 min read
‘The National Water Act automatically suspends a mining company’s water-use licence when an appeal is submitted but empowers the minister to lift the suspension at her discretion
BIRDLIFE SOUTH AFRICA

Parliament asked to probe Mokonyane about mine’s water-use licence for wetland

The water minister has ignored conservationists’ legal bid to protect an Mpumalanga wetland, using her powers to allow mining to go ahead

  • Govan Whittles
3 min read