Gauteng residents suffer severe water outages while COGTA returns R355 million meant for Rand Water to the Treasury
6 March 2024
The Gauteng Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) has surrendered R355 million in grant funding for Rand Water, despite Gauteng residents bearing the deeply problematic water shortages and outages.
This information was revealed in the Gauteng Provincial Consolidated Financial Statements for the 2022/2023 financial year.
The return of R355 million in grant funding has a far-reaching consequence for the province, especially since the funds were meant for Rand Water, a vital source of water in Gauteng.
It would have been more effective to use these funds to maintain, improve, or expand Rand Water's dilapidated water infrastructure at a time when the utility is struggling to keep up with the high water demand in Gauteng.