A week ago, AfriForum, an organisation that primarily focuses on protecting the rights of minorities, with a specific emphasis on Afrikaner interests, released a statement questioning the rationale for Rand Water establishing a footprint in the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. This follows the bulk water utility being selected as the preferred bidder to provide technical support, infrastructure management and operational improvement to the Zanzibar Water Authority (ZAWA) through a 10-year Management, Operations and Maintenance (MOM) contract. The project involves a total investment of roughly R800 million on the part of Rand Water.
The investment is focused on enhancing the sustainability, accessibility and reliability of Zanzibar’s water services. AfriForum is arguing that “the allocation of public resources to a foreign initiative while domestic infrastructure is under strain” poses a risk to the country and that Rand Water’s focus should be to prioritise securing bulk water supply in Gauteng. These two issues demand reflection.
Firstly, Rand Water’s primary commitment to provide reliable bulk water services is not and has never been compromised. The water utility’s abstraction of raw water from the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) has historically been sufficient to meet the demands of the provinces that it supplies. The amount of water that it abstracts is not determined by the water utility; it is legislated by law – specifically, the National Water Act.
Unauthorised, excessive or unmeasured abstraction is illegal. This is why, in cases where Rand Water has had to increase its abstraction level, it must apply for a temporary licence that permits the increased abstraction rate. The water utility is currently operating under such a licence, which was granted to it by the national Department of Water and Sanitation a month ago, to aid in the stabilisation of water supply in Gauteng.
What AfriForum is not acknowledging is that the water crisis in Gauteng is not the result of insufficient abstraction on the part of Rand Water but that of high levels of consumption. High consumption in this context does not refer to excessive utilisation by Gauteng residents but to the volume of water that is supplied to municipalities by Rand Water. The water crisis in Gauteng is driven by ageing water infrastructure, resulting in high levels of non-revenue water.
This is not raw water that is abstracted from the Vaal River but water that has been produced and treated and is safe for consumption. Roughly half of it is lost to leaks, vandalism and theft, before it even reaches households and businesses. Consider that about 33% of the total water supply in Johannesburg alone is lost to physical leaks and ageing infrastructure.
The reality is that even as Rand Water is temporarily licensed to abstract more water from the IVRS, this does not resolve the root of the water crisis in Gauteng, which is about poor water governance on the part of municipalities. Secondly, AfriForum claims that Rand Water’s R800 million investment in Zanzibar is a strain on domestic infrastructure. Let us consider the legal and financial facts.
Legally, Rand Water is permitted to undertake secondary activities, such as technical consulting and training, that are designed to support its core mandate and to drive revenue. Financially, this revenue generation mechanism enables the water utility to augment its income, which is currently under strain due to non-payment by municipalities. As of the third quarter of 2024/2025, municipalities owed Rand Water a staggering R8 billion – an amount that has been increasing exponentially over the years.
If the water utility is to continue with its work of building the much-needed infrastructure in Gauteng, it has to have a revenue generation strategy that will enable this undertaking. And revenue from secondary activities is proving impactful, having risen to R663 million in the first half of the 2025 financial year alone. Rand Water has built and continues to build, major water infrastructure using its own balance sheet and generated revenue, rather than relying on government bailouts or funding.
This includes, but is not limited to, the Vlakfontein Reservoir—a multi-million rand investment that will increase storage capacity to handle increased demand in Gauteng. It is unreasonable for AfriForum to argue against Rand Water expanding its footprint, which in turn increases its balance sheet, enabling it to build long-term water infrastructure. The expected return on investment on the Zanzibar undertaking is significant, not only financially, but operationally as well.
It allows Rand Water to test new technologies and refine processes that will improve efficiency and reliability here at home. Additionally, exposure to complex projects such as these enhances human capital within the water utility, which benefits South Africa. AfriForum cannot, on one hand, criticise state-owned entities for their perpetual