Document: Maluti-a-Phofung Case Study: Water Dialogues South Africa

This case study has been prepared for the Water Dialogues South Africa as part of a series of research processes designed to gather data and analyse water services provision in South Africa. The research process began with three pilot case studies for phase one. The Maluti-a-Phofung case is situated within phase two of the case study research.

The information gathering for this case focuses on Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality (MaP Municipality), which is one of five local municipalities within the Thabo Mofutsanyane District Municipality in the Free State Province. The areas within Maluti have seen several different types of institutional arrangements for water service provision. After 1994 DWAF took over service provision from the homelands, including QwaQwa and in 1998 it contracted Sedibeng Water Board to provide water services for the QwaQwa area, and later Kestell. Harrismith transitional local council was the service provider for its area until Rand Water was brought in to assist with service provision. The resulting business unit, Amanziwethu Services, was the first public-public partnership of its kind in South Africa. When MaP Municipality was formed in 2000 it became more and more clear that having two service providers for water service was creating some real challenges, while exacerbating some of the inequities of apartheid. Upon expiration of the contracts and after the Section 78 process was conducted, Maluti-a-Phofung Water (Pty) Ltd (referred to as MaP Water) was formed as a municipal entity to provide water and sanitation services to the entire MaP area. Following this a decision was taken to enter into a management contract Water Services South Africa (WSSA), formerly a subsidiary of Suez-Lyonnaise des Eaux to assist with the establishment and operations of Map Water.

A fair amount of research was previously conducted regarding the public-public partnership behind the former Amanziwethu Services. However, the aim of this case study is to examine the performance of MaP Water and where possible to provide a comparison of the different service arrangements that have pertained in Maluti-a-Phofung under Amanziwethu, Sedibeng, and MaP Water. The report provides an overview of the MaP region and a discussion of the institutional arrangements that have evolved over time with respect to water and sanitation services (WSS). This is followed by an examination of performance indicators of the different institutional actors, with a particular focus on MaP Water, but where possible also attempting a measure of comparison with previous service arrangements. Based on the Water Dialogues – South Africa methodology, this is then followed by a discussion of feedback from participatory community research and an analysis of the major issues identified in the report.