The High Court in Pretoria, dismissed an application from AfriForum to get an interdict from Rand Water on December 17.

This comes after the ongoing water crisis in the Govan Mbeki municipal area and claims made by DA councillor, Fiona Pelman that MPL, Speedy Mashilo, said in a meeting with Cogta on November 29, that Rand Water is applying water throttling because of failure to pay from GMM’s side.

This however, could not be proven in court.

Pelman said in a statement that Rand Water reduced water supply by 50% because of GMMֹ’s debt of R800 million that is in arrears.
Rand Water contested these claims in court and proved to the court that no formal decision to apply water throttling was made by Rand Water.

GMM also produced evidence in court to proof that the allegations were unfounded.

Thus AfriForum’s application for an interdict was dismissed and the court found that AfriForum failed to establish sufficient grounds for the matter to be heard on an urgent basis.

According to a press release from Rand Water, AfriForum’s pre-mature application, not only lacked factual support, but also misrepresented Rand Water’s position on matters relating to its mandate of providing water to its customers.

Justice Mohale, Rand Water’s spokesperson, said: “Rand Water perceives AfriForum’s mischaracterisation as part of the broader agenda by some sections of the society to discredit the entity and its leadership.

“If AfriForum’s intentions were sincere, they would have engaged with Rand Water to obtain the facts and we would have provided them with the facts.

“As a state owned entity, Rand Water has a huge responsibility to provide water to municipalities in its areas of operation to enable municipalities to serve their communities.

“Rand Water therefore pleads with organisations such as AfriForum to afford the entity a space to do so, rather than trying to disrupt entity from focussing on its mandate.

“In turn, Rand Water requests these entities to use their influence to persuade municipalities that owe Rand Water money, to pay for the water that they receive to ensure sustainability of Rand Water.

“Furthermore, these organisations, can work with municipalities to reduce non-revenue water that municipalities are losing to ensure that most of the water that Rand Water supplies to municipalities reaches communities they are intended for.

“The ruling re-enforces Rand Water’s transparency and commitment to supplying reliable and quality water.

“The ruling further debungs misleading narratives that are aimed at discrediting Rand Water and its leadership while creating unecessary public panic.”