MALAIKA MAHLATSI: Ferial Haffajee’s Rand Water misinformation

DISCLAIMER: This article was submitted to various staff and official emails of the Daily Maverick. Due to non-response, it is being published here.

On the 14^th of December 2024, award-winning journalist, Ferial Haffajee, published a graphic on X (formerly Twitter) produced by the Daily Maverick with the heading: “Rand Water Board: No Engineers”.

The graphic went on to list the qualifications of the Rand Water board, with a curious question mark on the qualifications of the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Sipho Mosai, who also sits on the board.

Like many Gauteng residents, Haffajee is reasonably frustrated about the planned maintenance at the Eikenhof reservoir/pump station, which has resulted in a lack of water availability in some Johannesburg suburbs.

But unlike the residents of Gauteng who may post their opinions with an understandably limited knowledge of the water situation in Gauteng and the country broadly, Haffajee is a seasoned journalist with a moral and ethical responsibility to report the truth. The Code of Ethics and Conduct for South African Media, an important instrument for journalistic fairness, demands no less.

The starting point is to illustrate how the headline of the graphic and accompanying caption are dangerously misleading.

Haffajee contends that the Rand Water board does not have engineers, then goes on to list the qualifications of 11 of the 13 board members, all of whom have degrees, with at least six of them holding advanced degrees at Masters level (when we include the two board members whose qualifications were not included in the graphic, the number rises to eight).

Of the 11 members whose qualifications she stated, two hold engineering degrees. Simphiwe Kondlo holds a BSc and diploma in Civil Engineering as well as a Masters in Engineering, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and the University of Pretoria (UP), respectively. Significantly, he also served as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Amatola Water Board from 1999 to 2004.

Another board member, Luvuyo Ntoyi, holds a national diploma and BTech in Civil Engineering, both from the Central University of Technology in the Free State. Like Kondlo, he has extensive experience in the water sector, having served as a board member of Bloem Water and currently, as the CEO of the Vaal Central Water Board.

Other members of the Rand Water board are equally seasoned professionals and are suitably qualified. And as argued by Zukiswa Wanner in an article titled “The importance of questioning statements around Gauteng’s water crisis” published by IOL, the suitability of a board is dependent on its diverse range of skills and qualifications.

It’s not reasonable that a board for a water entity should only comprise of engineers. Legal professionals, accountants and other persons who sit on the Rand Water board are critical to the functioning and efficiency of the board. After all, the board must make strategic decisions that include the management of the finances of the entity, laws that govern the entity and much more. 

Sipho Mngomezulu, who has question marks on his qualifications in the graphic, holds a BA Law degree and an LLB from UKZN, as well as an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science at UP.

Haffajee’s graphic curiously made question marks over the qualifications of Rand Water CEO, Sipho Mosai. I argue that this is curious because basic desktop research (Mosai’s curriculum vitae is publicly available) would have shown her that he holds a BSc and BSc Honours in Biochemistry from the University of the North, an MSc in Natural Science from the University of Free State and an MBA from the UKZN.

Mosai is also one of the most seasoned water scientists in the country, having been in the water sector for over two decades and in Rand Water, specifically, for over a decade.

The Rand Water board is, without question, one of the most qualified boards in the country – if not the most qualified.

Proof of this can be gleaned in the governance of the bulk water utility. It has, over the years, maintained successive unqualified audit outcomes and exceeded its key performance areas. This is publicly available information.

Furthermore, in March this year, the bulk water utility was recognised as one of the top four water utilities in the world by the Global Water Intelligence Organisation (GWIO), which assesses water utilities’ performance in terms of water quality, financial resilience and excellence of infrastructure that are meant to enhance water security.

Rand Water received the 2024 Public Agency of the Year award. The GWIO commended Rand Water for commissioning two major infrastructure projects in 2023 – including the Vlakfontein reservoir – one of the largest circular post-tensioned reservoirs in the world.

The project was nominated for an award for innovation and invention in concrete at the Fulton Awards, South Africa’s construction, civil engineering and architectural industries’ premier accolade for excellence. All this work has happened under the Rand Water board that Haffajee wants to claim is incompetent.

It is perhaps important to conclude this article with the facts around the planned water maintenance at the Eikenhof reservoir, which is currently estimated to be completed on schedule.

The objective of the maintenance is to correct the historical design of the engine rooms at Eikenhof, which were initially designed for the supply of water to limited customers during the apartheid era. The democratisation of water access post-apartheid has resulted in more demand for water, making Eikenhof’s interrelated engine rooms unfit for purpose.

Rand Water is correcting this design to ensure that the engine rooms are independent, which will enhance their flexibility and availability of water. The timing of the maintenance makes sense as schools and many businesses are closed or winding down, decreasing consumption and thereby making the recovery and stability of the system possible.

The water utility has also put contingency measures in place by providing alternative water supply in affected areas. This information has continuously been communicated by Rand Water through various platforms.

While the frustrations of affected residents are understandable, the fact of the matter is that this maintenance is crucial for ensuring long-term water security in Gauteng. The foresight of Rand Water and its highly qualified board must be commended, especially as the water utility is faced with challenges relating to non-payment by municipalities and a historical backlog of infrastructure that predates the appointment of the current board.

Haffajee has a responsibility to study the history of water governance and legislation in South Africa - lest she continues the ahistorical analysis that tethers very dangerously on the edge of fake news.

It must also be stated that this continued attempt to position Mosai as inept, an issue I spoke about in detail in my EWN articles titled “The danger in allowing liberal media to decide who our heroes should be” and “How the DA’s opportunism nearly destroyed a brilliant Black water scientist”, is extremely dangerous not only because it’s fake news, but also because it reflects Verwoerdian thinking that assumes ineptitude and incompetence on the part of Black professionals.

It is dangerous and deeply problematic, and must never be normalised. Far too much is at stake.

Malaika Mahlatsi is a geographer and researcher at the University of Johannesburg and holds a MSc Water Resource Science from Rhodes University. She is a PhD in Geography candidate at the University of Bayreuth in Germany.