GOOD Statement by Kaden Arguile,
GOOD National Youth Chairperson
20 September 2025
Preserving South Africa’s water supply is not only a matter of justice today, it is a generational responsibility. Without decisive action, the next generation will inherit the consequences of today’s corruption and mismanagement.
The GOOD Party welcomes the President’s decision to expand the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe into allegations of serious maladministration within the Department of Water and Sanitation to now include the “Drop the Block” Project. This marks a critical step forward in confronting the rot that has paralysed South Africa’s water infrastructure and compromised the rights of millions of citizens.
Water is not a luxury, it is a constitutional right. Yet across our country, communities continue to suffer from failing infrastructure, polluted water sources, and deliberate delays in the rollout of critical upgrades. The people most affected are overwhelmingly poor, Black, and living in communities already burdened by historical neglect. For them, water insecurity is not an abstract policy debate, it is a daily struggle to survive.
The SIU’s newly expanded mandate, as per Proclamation 287 of 2025, now allows it to investigate the “Drop the Block” project and its implementation by the Department, Lepelle Northern Water and Sedibeng Water, as well as all suppliers and service providers involved. This broadening of scope, alongside the extension of the investigation timeframe from 1 January 2015 to 12 September 2025, is essential. It recognises that water-related corruption did not emerge overnight, and that systemic looting requires a decade’s worth of scrutiny to properly connect the dots and hold accountable all those responsible.
We’ve seen this approach work before. The SIU’s methodical investigation into the National Lotteries Commission uncovered a mafia-style web of corruption that would have gone unchecked without a long-term forensic mandate. We believe the same level of thoroughness is needed to expose the deep dysfunction in our water sector.
The Department of Water and Sanitation has presided over numerous failures, from the stalled uMzimvubu River project, to sewage flowing into rivers, to collapsed delivery in rural municipalities. These are not isolated incidents. They are the consequence of a governance culture that rewards cronies over competence, and cover-ups over clean governance.
GOOD supports the SIU’s mandate to go beyond corruption and identify systemic failures that enable mismanagement, with the goal of recommending structural reforms. This cannot be just about criminal punishment, it must also be about restoring public confidence and fixing the machinery of delivery.
As a society, we must be clear that corruption in water infrastructure is not only a financial crime, it is a human rights violation. Every delayed project, every polluted river, and every dry tap denies someone the dignity of safe and reliable access to water.
We call on all South Africans, especially whistleblowers within the Department and its implementing agents, to come forward. The SIU needs the full weight of public support behind this investigation. We must make it clear that the era of impunity is over.
South Africa cannot build a just future on a foundation of broken pipes and broken promises.
Media enquires: media@forgood.org.za