South Africa’s efforts to manage its scarce water resources appear to be frozen in time — despite considerable assistance from the Netherlands, the global experts on water management, over many years.

In November 2015, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte visited South Africa to boost relations with this country, bringing several water experts. The focus of their efforts to help this country’s water authorities had been the Kingfisher Project, which was mobilising the Netherlands’ own respected regional water management authorities to share their deep understanding about how to manage water.

They had already been imparting these skills for about a decade to the equivalent local bodies, the nine Catchments Management Agencies. (CMAs) whose task is to manage water in the country’s major river systems, including building dams and allocating scarce water among different interests, such as farmers, industrialists and cities. 

Yet at that time only two of South Africa’s CMAs had managed to become fully operational, the Inkomati-Usuthu CMA in Mpumalanga and the Breede-Gouritz CMA in the Western Cape. 

On Monday, Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok will be in South Africa to meet his local counterpart Naledi Pandor. They will co-chair the inaugural meeting of the South Africa-Netherlands Joint Commission for Co-operation.

“The Joint Commission is aimed at strengthening and expanding co-operation in line with the priorities of the two governments, particularly in the areas of agriculture and water management,” Pandor’s office said. 

More than four years later, only the same two CMAs, the Inkomati-Usuthu CMA in Mpumalanga, and the Breede-Gouritz CMA in the Western Cape, are fully operational, Sputnik Ratau, spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation confirmed.

“The other seven still form part of the long-term plan as mentioned by Minister Sisulu during the launch of the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan.”

The other seven CMAs are the Pongola-Mzimkulu in KwaZulu-Natal, the Limpopo in Limpopo; the Olifants in Mpumalanga/Limpopo; the Vaal in Gauteng/Free State; the Orange in Free State and Northern Cape; the Mzimvubu-Tsitsikamma in the Eastern Cape and the Berg-Olifants in the north-west Cape. 

Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation minister Lindiwe Sisulu unveiled that R898-billion master plan in November 2019, mainly to deal with the impact of drought and provide water security for SA. Yet the government’s seeming inability to put in place fully functioning water management agencies in seven of nine of the country’s catchment areas long predated the unveiling of the master plan or even the drought. 

Perhaps some of this tardiness can be explained by the preoccupation of Sisulu’s predecessor, Nomvula Mokonyane, with soliciting favours from the corrupt and now-defunct company Bosasa, rather than attending to her portfolio. But surely not all? Nevertheless, the Dutch seem unfazed. 

Daily Maverick asked Foreign Minister Blok for his assessment of the water co-operation between the Netherlands and South Africa, including whether his government was satisfied with progress in the running of the CMAs after so many years of Dutch assistance.

He replied via email, in broad terms, saying only that:

“The Netherlands and Dutch companies have much experience with water-related issues. Since almost a third of the Netherlands is situated below sea level, water management is Dutch core business. We need to protect ourselves from floods and droughts while ensuring proper use of our water resources for development.

“We are more than willing to share our experiences and expertise with other countries, including South Africa. We too have to adapt to new realities, such as increasing droughts and manage our water accordingly. That is why we invest in water re-use, water efficiency and responsible groundwater use, technologies and methods that are very relevant to South Africa as well. I am confident that our countries can learn a great deal from each other in this area.”

A spokesperson for the Dutch embassy in Pretoria elaborated, with some specifics about the Dutch-SA water co-operation, including the recent “Blue Deal Programme” which is the present focus of their joint work on water management:

“The Blue Deal Programme is a global commitment of the Netherlands, with the aim to provide 20 million people with clean water in 40 river basins around the world by 2030.

“Building on our long-lasting water relationship, South Africa and the Netherlands decided to work out a Blue Deal for three catchment areas in South Africa. The Blue Deal will build on the experiences with existing (regional) water management programmes such as the Kingfisher I and II Programmes, the Incomati/Maputo programme and the Waternet training programme.

“These are focused on integrated water resource management, improved economic development and operational governance for effective CMAs. The Blue Deal programme focuses on implementable solutions to local water problems in a collaborative manner, through capacity building and technological development. 

“Four projects in three different catchment areas have been selected to start with, building on the priorities of the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan. The official launch is to take place in March 2020. This is a good and concrete example of how we can collaborate. The aim is to provide 2.5 million people in South Africa with clean water.”

Though water is perhaps the greatest focus, Dutch-South African co-operation extends well beyond that into the wider economy where commerce between them is strong. As Pandor’s office noted, two-way trade reached R60-billion in 2019 and the Netherlands is also an important investor, with more than 300 Dutch companies active in South Africa, providing more than 100,000 direct and indirect jobs, the Dutch embassy adds. 

The Netherlands is among the 20 biggest exporters to South Africa and is also a major importer of South African goods. As a result, the two countries established the Flying Swans initiative, which brings together the Dutch government, Dutch private companies, FruitSA and Transnet in a joint effort to get agricultural exports, specifically fruit and nuts, from South African farmers more efficiently to global markets. 

“The initiative includes substantial investment (€1.85-million over three years, and Dutch subsidies for the project development phase) in rail transport and cooling facilities, allowing farmers in rural areas such as Limpopo to gain better, high-quality access to the export hubs of Durban and Cape Town, decreasing food waste and environmental impact and increasing revenue and therefore employment opportunities,” the Dutch embassy in Pretoria explains.

The Chinese embassy complained in 2019 about the inefficiency of rail transport, specifically from Limpopo, and port logistics and how these were impairing the efficiency of a Chinese mining company in that province. Has the Netherlands had the same experience?

“South Africa’s ports are among the best and biggest in Africa, but gains can still be made in terms of speed and efficiency of goods flowing from the docks to the hinterland and vice versa,” the Dutch embassy said. 

“The Rotterdam port in the Netherlands is one of the largest ports in the world and we are working on ways to strengthen the relationship between South African and Dutch ports, for knowledge exchange, for example on digitalisation and data management to improve efficiency. 

“The Flying Swans project is a good illustration of how the Netherlands and South Africa join forces to improve transport efficiency and the throughput of fresh produce in Durban and Cape Town. Through the use of intermodal hubs, the parties involved in this project have managed to increase the number of trainsets used for fruit transport.”

In 2019, the Dutch embassy joined other embassies representing countries which are the biggest investors in South Africa to caution the South African government about the need to improve the investment climate here. The warning annoyed some parts of the South African government.

Does the Netherlands still feel those concerns?

“It cannot be denied that the South African economy is under pressure at the moment,” the Dutch embassy said. “President Ramaphosa’s administration faces a difficult task. Many obstacles preventing economic growth are of a structural nature.

“Issues such as energy and skills shortages will take several years if not decades to address. Yet, short-term action is imperative to prevent a low growth debt trap. 

“This being said, we are encouraged by evidence of determined actions which will steer the economy in the right direction. The Netherlands is encouraged by President Ramaphosa’s commitment to improving the ease of doing business in South Africa. This will allow South Africa to attract external skills and investment, which will boost the economy. 

“The Dutch Government, public sector and research centres are available to create and/or expand their economic relations with a long-term vision.”

Cultural co-operation is also a large element of relations between the two countries, mainly because of the long Dutch colonial history in South Africa, beginning in 1652 with the arrival of Jan van Riebeek and the establishment of a halfway house in the Cape for the Dutch East India Company.

The current focus is on the joint financing of films and preservation of the Dutch cultural heritage in this country, including successful projects between the Western Cape Archives and the National Archives in the Netherlands to record the registers of the Dutch East India Company and five successful projects, hosted by the Netherlands Cultural Agency, Rijksmuseum and the South African Museum Association to train museum curators with new techniques, the Dutch embassy said.

“In total, South Africa and the Netherlands are currently collaborating on more than 190 activities in the arts and culture spheres, using culture in a cross-sectoral way to transcend borders.”

Daily Maverick asked if the Dutch government was concerned that the surge of anti-colonial sentiment in South Africa over the past few years might impact on this collaboration.

 “The Netherlands and South Africa are directly joined through history since the beginning of the 17th century,” the embassy replied. “In South Africa’s apartheid struggle, there was strong support from Dutch political leaders and from the Dutch people. We have sincere and deep engagement to discuss our shared history, gradually building a common view on our past, including different perspectives.”

Internationally, the Netherlands sees South Africa as an important ally in defending multilateralism (against a growing trend of unilateralism and nationalism) and promoting peace in Africa and globally. Asked to elaborate Blok said:

“There is indeed a shared concern between our two countries about the state of multilateralism. Increasing global challenges such as climate change, cybercrime and conflict, require attention through multilateral channels.

“Both countries realise that the multilateral channels might need reform in order to deal with the current global dilemmas, in an effective manner for the global population. The Netherlands and South Africa are partners in advocating this message and defending the state of multilateralism.

“South Africa is a leading nation in the Security Council to promote peace, security and conflict mediation on the African continent. The Netherlands is therefore encouraged by South Africa’s chairmanship of the African Union next month (March 2020). As like-minded partners on the subjects of peace and security, I look forward to intensifying our collaboration on these matters.” DM