Water board fat cats: R50m salaries while communities run dry

702's John Perlman is joined by Professor Mike Muller, Former Director General of Water and Sanitation and a Professional Engineer and Visiting Adjunct Professor at the Wits School of Governance.

Listen below:

While taps run dry in many municipalities across the country, senior members of South Africa’s water boards are pocketing nearly R50 million a year in board fees.

Some are being paid as much as  R100 000 per board meeting.

And that's not all, they're facing criticism for what has been condemned as a 'grotesque' misuse of public funds after some board members' travel and accommodation expenses exceeded R200,000.

So what exactly is a water board, and what do its members do?

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"They are the bulk water suppliers. They get water from rivers and dams across the country. They treat it, they put it in large reservoirs, and then they supply it to municipalities."

Professor Mike Muller, Former Director General - Water and Sanitation 

And the board members? What is their role, and can it really be justified to the tune of R100 000 per meeting they attend, asks Perlman.

"The job of the board is to make sure everybody gets reliable, safe water. Now, if they do that job well, I don't want them to be robbed by some sort of private sector outfit that's going to offer them a couple of thousand rand more and a slightly easier life."

- Professor Mike Muller, Former Director General - Water and Sanitation 

A recent article on TimesLive has shone a spotlight on the remuneration received by some waterboard members and details the expenses many have racked up in the last year.

However, Muller says there is some good work being done. There are boards, he says, where the members refuse to be 'pushed around by politicians', citing Rand Water and the Trans Caldeon Tunnel Authority.

"I know they had tremendous pressure from ministers to do things which were, quite frankly, if not criminal, then stupid, and they resisted that."

- Professor Mike Muller, Former Director General - Water and Sanitation 

"That's what we pay those kinds of board members for. We pay them to be good leaders and to support good management, and quite often that can be a dangerous job in South Africa."

- Professor Mike Muller, Former Director General - Water and Sanitation 

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full conversation.