The Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) is the most important of the 42 projects. Emfuleni’s wastewater infrastructure – a local ‘wicked problem’ that must be resolved – forms part of the plan.

However, external factors may cause delays because of politics. To understand that, we need to delve into history.

In 2000, the country’s new municipal systems started operations. A spate of service delivery protests soon followed in the urban areas. In the rural towns of the Free State and Mpumalanga the protests registered most prominently.

To reduce service delivery protests government, in 2006, introduced its Municipal Infrastructure Grants (MIGs) to fix water and sanitation problems. Emfuleni’s new proposed regional wastewater works (WWTWs) was high on that agenda. But it was locally thwarted.

Civil society interests prioritising the Vaal River Barrage, opposed it. Government’s plan, in terms of President Thabo Mbeki’s public-private partnership strategy, was to attract more foreign loan capital. But international investors by then had become wary of supporting water and sanitation works in developing countries.

Their benchmark was the Columbian city of Cochabamba, where civil unrest broke out in 2000 after an international company irresponsibly privatised the municipal water systems.

Locally Mbeki’s continued private sector-friendly policy, along with his negligence of measures to address the countrywide peoples’ post-apartheid upliftment from poverty, made him unpopular within the ANC. Then, his former Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, defeated Mbeki at the December 2006 ANC conference at Polokwane’s University of Limpopo. Zuma’s victory was seated in his support for the party’s National Democratic Revolution (NDR) policy. Mbeki resigned in 2008 and in 2009 Zuma became the country’s new president.

The Zuma presidency, notable for its support for the poor, increasingly became more disabled by governance lapses. Ineffective administration and corruption, like in the field of water supply and sanitation, were responsible for his ultimate demise in 2018. The NDR never quite materialised.

The Ramaphosa presidency started in early 2018 after the ANC recalled Zuma. Despite winning the national and provincial elections for the ANC in 2019, support for Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency has been notably divided in the ANC’s top echelons.

The presidency continues to seek public-private partnerships for South Africa’s economic development. But the president remains vulnerable for as long as enforcement and legal processes have not stamped out corruption.

Delays in Emfuleni’s infrastructure restoration and upgrade, since 2018, have been notable for lapses in funding shortfalls and delays. Yet, the bill for an Institutional Water Agency Law was already gazetted in 2007. It never became law.

Now DWS’s Master Plan, for the next 30 years, contains the ground rules for effective water and sanitation development.

Moreover, DWS is aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 2030, where Goal 6 speaks to water and sanitation. Sub-Sahara Africa is in the frontline of global measures to support these infrastructures in what is described as the world’s most deprived region in terms of water service delivery.

When the Emfuleni wastewater infrastructure project is completed, it could stand out as potential symbol of government overcoming corruption and respecting people’s equity with local job creation opportunities.