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A damning new report by the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has declared the Makana municipality’s ongoing water and sanitation crisis a violation of fundamental constitutional rights.
After more than three years of investigations, complaints and testimony, the commission concluded that the collapse of basic services in Makhanda and surrounding towns was not due to water shortages but rather a deep-rooted breakdown in governance, accountability and infrastructure management.
The report, released in Makhanda on Wednesday, painted a bleak picture of daily life for residents who have endured prolonged water outages, overflowing sewage, failing sanitation systems and worsening environmental contamination.
Addressing those present, SAHRC commissioner Dr Henk Boshoff asked: “Are we not witnessing the characteristics of a municipality that doesn’t care about its community and residents?”
Boshoff said residents were living lives of indignity.
In an extraordinary escalation, the SAHRC recommended that the Eastern Cape government consider dissolving the Makana municipal council under Section 139(1)(c) of the constitution — a last-resort intervention reserved for severely dysfunctional municipalities.
It also called for a review on whether Makana should continue to manage its own water services, suggesting that these responsibilities may need to be handed over to a more capable authority.
Makana manages Makhanda, Alicedale, Riebeek East and several surrounding rural villages and farming communities.
The area has been plagued by service delivery protests over the years.
The resolutions from the commission were met with mixed emotions as some locals said they were tired of promises.
In its report, the SAHRC found that the crisis in Makana was not primarily caused by a lack of available water resources.
“Instead, it is the result of governance failures, infrastructure deterioration, weak accountability and institutional instability,” the report said.
More than 30 formal complaints were lodged with the commission between 2023 and 2026, highlighting widespread disruptions affecting households, schools, healthcare facilities and businesses.
Vulnerable communities — children, the elderly and residents of informal settlements — bore the brunt.
In some areas, the bucket toilet system — meant to have been eradicated decades ago — was still in use.
The commission found that these conditions amounted to ongoing violations of several constitutional rights, including access to sufficient water, human dignity, a safe environment and the protection of children.
Despite years of intervention from provincial and national government — including financial recovery plans, infrastructure funding, technical support and oversight — the situation has not improved.
“Ordinary support measures have failed to produce sustained reform,” the report states.
The findings are backed by alarming evidence from multiple institutions, including the auditor-general, which issued a disclaimed audit opinion, pointing to massive financial mismanagement, irregular expenditure exceeding R300m and a failure to account for public funds.
Meanwhile, the Special Investigating Unit is probing allegations of corruption, maladministration and irregular procurement linked to critical infrastructure projects.
Makana Citizens Front member Lungile Nxube, who had submitted a complaint to the SAHRC, said they welcomed the report as it gave them direction.
However, he said he was slightly disappointed that in the recommendations there were no referrals for criminal prosecution.
“I am raising this because in 2018, R2.6m was spent on purchasing a water pump,” Nxube said.
“To date, that water pump is still in Benoni.
“The result is that we are struggling as communities in terms of water.
“I want the commission to follow up on that.”
The water pump forms part of the SIU probe.
The department of water and sanitation had confirmed to the SAHRC that adequate bulk water was available in the region, further reinforcing the commission’s conclusion that the crisis stemmed from systemic failures, not scarcity.
Residents had also raised concerns about poor communication from the municipality and a lack of trust.
Rhodes University, meanwhile, reported severe disruptions, with water outages affecting student health, academic operations and campus safety.
Many students had opted to transfer.
The commission said communities could not be expected to endure these conditions indefinitely.
“Human rights cannot wait,” it said.
It further recommended:
- Urgent completion of Phase 3 of the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works upgrade, which mainly serves the townships;
- Continued enforcement action by the department of water and sanitation where there is persistent noncompliance;
- Consideration of criminal and enforcement mechanisms available under water legislation; and
- Ongoing monitoring and enforcement by the department of employment and labour regarding unsafe municipal infrastructure facilities.
“The commission will continue monitoring implementation of the recommendations contained in the report and reserves all powers available to it under the constitution and the SAHRC Act should further intervention become necessary.”
Boshoff added: “We have done our part.
“Organs of state must now do theirs.
“Makana municipality residents deserve better.
“No effort should be spared to address the crisis.
“Our work will not stop here.
“We will continue to monitor the implementation of the recommendations.
“We cannot tolerate what we have observed in this municipality.”
Speaking on behalf of the United Civic Movement, Archbishop Nkosinathi Ngesi said the findings gave them hope.
He said the municipality was fortunate that people in Makana were so patient because if it were another city, it “would have been on fire a long time ago”.
Makana neighbourhood watch secretary-general Mfundo Tsili said he was concerned that the commission had taken three years to publish its report.
Grahamstown Deserves Better chair Devon Waldick said it was a win for residents.
“We have been without water for almost three months in some areas,” Waldick said.
“Whenever there is water, it’s dirty.
“The infrastructure in this city has collapsed.”
Makana mayor Yandiswa Vara said they were guests at the SAHRC’s presentation so their job was merely to listen.
However, Vara said the report had been noted and would be submitted to council.
As far as the findings of systemic failures in the provision of water and sanitation within the municipality were concerned, Vara said there had been satisfying progress when comparing where the municipality used to be to where it was now.
“There are still grey areas,” Vara said.
“As you have seen, the recommendations are not recommendations to the municipality, they are recommendations to provincial and national.
“There are areas claiming not to have water, yet we attended to those.
“But the main issue now, as we have been saying, is that we do have bulk water.
“The problem is regulation.
“We have challenges of major pipe bursts which demands we shut the water off to attend to them, leaving some areas without.”
Vara said heavy rains had also forced the municipality at times to shut off water to certain areas to deal with issues like dams having a mud surplus.
While they tried to tend to minor complaints as quickly as possible, they had long-term challenges too, she said.
Vara confirmed that some homes still used the bucket system.
“We have about 116 households still using the bucket system.
“The eradication of the bucket system forms part of the upgrading of informal settlements through the human settlements programme.
“It’s not our core mandate as a municipality, it’s being done through human settlements.
“However, there is a programme earmarked to address the eradication.”
Mpumelelo Saziwa, chair of the Eastern Cape portfolio committee in the office of the premier, said the SAHRC report would now be presented to the legislature so the relevant committee could deal with it.
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