Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

Environmental affairs Media statements | Media statements

DWS’ War on Leaks fails miserably despite grand promises, spending of billions

ByAfriForum 06/06/202506/06/2025

Soundbite: Lambert de Klerk (English)

Klankgreep: Lambert de Klerk (Afrikaans)

AfriForum maintains that the time is ripe for communities who have a direct interest in the proper functioning of their towns and neighbourhoods to be enabled to take responsibility for the identification and repair of water leaks, as well as the maintenance of this essential infrastructure.

The government – from national to local level – has repeatedly demonstrated its inability to deliver essential services and effectively manage public funds to address this water crisis. This has once again been proven by the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) latest findings, which exposed the Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS) so-called “War on Leaks” as a costly, mismanaged and ultimately failed programme.

Launched in 2015 with an approved budget of R2,2 billion in public funding, the War on Leaks was presented as a bold intervention to address the country’s growing water loss crisis while creating jobs. Instead, a decade later, the project exacerbated the very problem it set out to solve. In 2015, South Africa lost 35% of its treated water to leaks. By 2025, after an additional R2,5 billion was wasted through cost overruns, water losses had increased to 47%.

The SIU’s latest presentation to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) confirmed that the project, along with other DWS campaigns, was marred by procurement fraud, non-existent or incomplete work, overpayments and the manipulation of supply chain processes. Officials within the department were complicit, facilitating the certification of fraudulent work and collaborating with contractors to defraud the state.

“Far from being the promised solution, the War on Leaks has produced no visible results. The state has also proven once again that it cannot be trusted with basic service delivery, let alone the safeguarding of essential national resources,” says Lambert de Klerk, Head of Environmental Affairs at AfriForum.

With a government that consistently fails its citizens in delivering basic services, AfriForum remains steadfast in its pursuit to empower and enable communities to take responsibility for local infrastructure, especially when it comes to identifying and repairing water leaks and maintaining this critical infrastructure.