Our community in Secunda, Mpumalanga is in crisis. For over 13 days now, we have been without a reliable water supply, turning a fundamental human need into a daily struggle. The impact of this extended water outage is more than just an inconvenience; it has disrupted our lives, affected our hygiene, and impacted the health of our families. Businesses are suffering, schools are finding it difficult to maintain sanitary conditions, and hospitals are operating under severe strain.

The South African Constitution, under Section 27, explicitly guarantees the right to have access to sufficient water. This is not merely a promise; it is a lawful obligation that requires the government to implement reasonable measures to ensure this right is progressively realized. The ongoing negligence of the Govan Mbeki Municipality in Secunda is a blatant violation of our constitutional rights and an affront to our dignity.

We are calling on the South African Human Rights Commission to investigate this serious breach of our rights by the Govan Mbeki Municipality. We deserve accountability and immediate action to restore our water supply. The municipality must be held responsible and compelled to take immediate steps to resolve this crisis.

Support this petition to urge the South African Human Rights Commission to step in and protect our rights. Our community's well-being depends on it. Please sign this petition to stand in solidarity with Secunda and ensure access to water is recognized as a priority by those in power.

Further to this:

The Govan Mbeki Municipality Water Crisis: Chronic Debt, Systemic Failure, and Collective Punishment.

The Debt That Keeps Growing:

The Govan Mbeki Municipality's debt to Rand Water has ballooned to approximately R850 million, largely due to worsening financial circumstances, and the municipality has struggled since 2018 to settle these obligations. More broadly, the municipality's total outstanding debt to creditors exceeded R3 billion, comprising R2.6 billion owed to Eskom and R439 million to Rand Water—though these figures continue to worsen with accumulated interest and penalties.

The trajectory is damning. As a result of this escalating debt, Rand Water has implemented water throttling measures to enforce payment compliance. What this means in practice is that residents—who pay their water bills faithfully—are punished through systematic restrictions on water supply.

Throttling as Collective Punishment:

The water throttling affects multiple communities across the region. The water restrictions impact eMbalenhle, Leandra, Kinross, Evander, Secunda, Trichardt, Bethal, and eMzinoni, with particularly severe effects in high-lying areas of Secunda including Extensions 22 and 23, upper Voortrekker Street, and the Albany area.

The municipality's response has been consistently inadequate. Rand Water declined repayment proposals submitted by the municipality, and follow-up meetings scheduled for negotiations have been repeatedly postponed. This pattern of failed engagement compounds the crisis—neither institution appears willing or able to reach a sustainable resolution.

Systemic Breakdown and Chronic Mismanagement:

The root causes are organizational and financial. The DA noted that Govan Mbeki Municipality had a payment rate of only 58%, and that R2.7 billion was owed to the municipality for services provided, indicating that the municipality cannot collect revenues from residents even as it owes external creditors. This creates a vicious cycle: residents don't pay the municipality (often due to poor service), the municipality cannot pay Rand Water, and in retaliation, all residents suffer through water rationing.

Additionally, opposition parties have attributed the financial spiral to an inability to capitalize on services provided due to high distribution losses and defective revenue generation strategies. In other words, the municipality not only fails to collect payment but also loses water through infrastructure failures, compounding the crisis.

The Human Cost:

The 13 days without water, not exceptional in Govan Mbeki; it is routine. The municipality repeatedly apologizes for "late communication" and "negative impact," as documented in multiple statements, yet the crisis persists year after year. Opposition parties have predicted that deterioration in service delivery will continue as long as current leadership remains in place.

The Larger Pattern:

This is not a crisis of scarcity or resources—Rand Water has water to supply. It is a crisis of municipal governance: failed revenue collection, unchecked debt accumulation, inability to engage creditors, and infrastructure decay (including vandalism of pump stations). The municipality chooses to let communities suffer rather than implement difficult but necessary reforms.

Residents pay their water bills in good faith. Yet they are held hostage by a municipality's financial mismanagement and an enforcement mechanism—throttling—that punishes the paying public rather than holding leadership accountable.