{"id":98704,"date":"2025-06-26T19:21:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T17:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=98704"},"modified":"2025-06-26T19:21:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T17:21:25","slug":"sahrc-sounds-alarm-over-water-mafias-sabotaging-infrastructure-across-sa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/sahrc-sounds-alarm-over-water-mafias-sabotaging-infrastructure-across-sa\/","title":{"rendered":"SAHRC Sounds Alarm Over Water Mafias Sabotaging Infrastructure Across SA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za<\/a> <\/em>
\n3-minute read
\n26 June 2025 | 19:10 CAT<\/p>\n

\"\"

\ud83d\udcf7 SAHRC flags water sabotage crisis: Criminal syndicates bleed municipalities dry while communities go thirsty.<\/p><\/div>\n

As Environmental Month draws to a close, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has raised grave concerns over the state of water infrastructure across the country, warning that sabotage by so-called “water mafias” is endangering a basic human right.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Henk Boshoff, speaking on The Daily Round-Up<\/em><\/a>, revealed that over the past year, the SAHRC met with municipalities in every province to uncover root causes of service delivery failures\u2014particularly the provision of clean water.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccess to water is a basic human right in terms of the constitution,\u201d Boshoff emphasised. \u201cYet municipalities are battling not only a lack of funding and skills but also the deliberate sabotage of water systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Boshoff, nearly all municipalities reported being held hostage by criminal syndicates dubbed water mafias<\/em>, who allegedly vandalise and sabotage infrastructure to secure long-term contracts for water tankers. \u201cThese mafias damage infrastructure so they can profit from the crisis they helped create,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

The Commission has compiled a detailed policy brief in collaboration with academics from the Dullah Omar Institute at the University of the Western Cape. This report has been submitted to the Presidency, the Ministers of Water and Sanitation, Police, and other relevant departments. It calls for urgent, high-level intervention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve recommended that activities targeting water services infrastructure be added to the priorities in the draft National Policing Policy,\u201d Boshoff said. \u201cThe South African Police Service must urgently start policing infrastructure sabotage.\u201d<\/p>\n

While both President Cyril Ramaphosa and Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu acknowledged the existence of these mafias during a Water Indaba earlier this year, Boshoff stressed that more tangible action is needed. \u201cThe time for statements is over,\u201d he warned. \u201cMunicipalities are crying out for SAPS support; they simply can\u2019t afford private security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boshoff ended with a stark reminder: \u201cWater is the lifeblood of all living things. If we allow criminal interests to control it, we risk far more than service delivery. We risk our future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen<\/strong> to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up<\/em> <\/a>with Moulana Junaid Kharsany and Commissioner Henk Boshoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za 3-minute read 26 June 2025 | 19:10 CAT As Environmental Month draws to a close, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has raised grave concerns over the state of water infrastructure across the country, warning that sabotage by so-called “water mafias” is endangering a basic human right. Commissioner Henk Boshoff, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":98705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Tanker-Mafia.png?fit=629%2C354&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-pG0","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 21:34:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}