SA is moving backwards with water, says WaterCAN:
South Africa’s sewage treatment systems are failing faster than they are being fixed, with new government assessments showing that nearly half of municipal wastewater works are in a critical state.
The findings of the Green Drop 2025 report, released alongside the latest Blue Drop and No Drop progress assessments, highlight mounting strain across the country’s water sector — from failing wastewater plants and polluted rivers to unsafe drinking water and massive losses of treated water through leaks and poor infrastructure.
According to the latest Green Drop report, 396 (47%) of the 848 municipal wastewater systems assessed are in a critical condition, up from 39% in 2022.
The number of systems performing at excellent or good levels has dropped sharply, from 118 systems (14%) in 2022 to just 66 systems (8%) in 2025. Only 14 systems achieved Green Drop certification this year, down from 22 in 2022.
“These results confirm what communities have been saying for years. The crisis is not new — what is new is the continued failure to act. Reports are being released but where is the accountability?” said WaterCAN executive director Ferrial Adam.
The report highlights widespread failures, including large volumes of wastewater failing to reach treatment works. This has led to sewage spills, environmental contamination and direct public health risks.
“We are moving backwards and that should alarm every South African,” said Adam. “Fewer high-performing systems and more in critical condition is not a trend — it is a collapse. We cannot celebrate mediocrity while our rivers are being turned into sewage channels.”
Provincial disparities are stark. The Northern Cape recorded the highest proportion of critical wastewater systems, at 87%, followed by the Free State at 85%. Even traditionally stronger provinces like Gauteng and the Western Cape are showing signs of deterioration.
The Blue Drop progress assessment, which evaluates drinking water quality, paints a less dramatic but concerning picture.
Nationally, 61.9% of drinking water systems were classified as low risk, a slight improvement from 60.2% previously. But nearly 38% of systems fall outside the low-risk category, including 185 high- or critical-risk systems, of which 79 are in outright crisis, exposing communities to unsafe or unreliable drinking water.
“This is not stability — it is managed decline,” Adam said. “We are tolerating a system where more than a third of water supply systems pose a real risk and nearly 200 require urgent intervention.”
The No Drop Progress Report, tracking water use efficiency and losses, found that non-revenue water remains around 47%, meaning nearly half of treated water is lost due to leaks, ageing infrastructure, poor maintenance and weak management before it reaches consumers.
Across all three reports, recurring problems include ageing infrastructure, chronic under-maintenance, skills shortages and weak municipal accountability, pointing to systemic failure in water governance.
“There has been more than enough evidence, more than enough warnings and more than enough time. The real failure here is not technical — it is political,” Adam said.
Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina acknowledged the seriousness of the findings, describing the Green Drop results as “deeply concerning”.
She said the increase in critically failing wastewater systems and the decline in high-performing plants underscored the urgent need for intervention at the municipal level.
Although the Blue Drop findings suggested marginal improvements in drinking water quality, high- and critical-risk systems required urgent corrective action and stronger regulatory oversight, the minister said.
WaterCAN has called for immediate turnaround plans, stricter enforcement, sustained investment in operations and maintenance and expanded professional capacity within municipalities.
“Until there are real consequences for failure, we will continue to see the same pattern: reports, regression and no action,” Adam added.
Reinventing the Cape Town International Jazz Festival without losing the jazz:
From curious newcomers to lifelong devotees, the Cape Town International Conference Centre hummed with a multigenerational crowd united by a single objective: experiencing the boldest instalment of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF) to date.
The year’s festival successfully bridged continents, pairing global icons like Fatoumata Diawara and Jacob Collier with local heavyweights such as Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse, Nduduzo Makhathini and 91-year-old legendary pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim, who commands the stage with grace and genius.
It was a line-up that celebrated the world while remaining rooted in a distinctly African identity. The addition of Amapiano pioneers Scorpion Kings, consisting of Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa, sparked a wave of conversation on whether the festival should maintain its “strictly jazz” roots or evolve with the country’s pulse.
The Mail & Guardian spoke to Georgia Jones, the co-festival director, for some insight.
What was the thinking behind the curation and what story were you trying to tell through it?
With the festival of this legacy, also remaining a South African and African festival, I arrived at this incredible honour of being in this, first in the artist curation role and then now this role.
I said we have to focus on championing African artists. We have to shine the light on our own before we acknowledge others. As South Africans, we tend not to shine the light on our own some of the time. We need to do that more.
The idea was: How do we also speak to the fans of the international artists? Who are those fans? Who is the audience and what is the audience that we want to bring in? How do we make this a younger festival to continue this festival for another 20 years? Because the people who were around when the festival started 26 years ago, might have been 30 and now they’re 56 and now we want to bring 30-year-olds back in. How do we do that?
How do we introduce an energy that then speaks to different people?
And that’s why we picked very selectively — Sipho Hotstix, the Yellowjackets, Sheila E. — that speaks to the slightly older, more mature demographic but also inspires the younger demographic. Then looking at someone like Fatoumata Diawara and how inspiring she is in the way that she moves. That also deserves more acknowledgement.
Then going further abroad and bringing someone like Jacob Collier here was super important for our people. What he’s done gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. He’s reinstalled a hope and the desire to be imaginative. That’s what we limit ourselves to do.
While the line-up is very distinct and it has all these different sorts of pockets of different things going on, the key focus was how, as a festival attendee, would you move through the programme if you were an R&B lover, if you were a pure jazz lover? Just thinking from an attendee’s perspective, but then also thinking beyond that — How can we be intentional with impact?
We pulled in different incredible artists from Brazil to India to Russia to Mali to the US. Everywhere that has really shown us the importance of celebrating everyone and then reflecting that back to us as South Africans and saying: How do we unify and how do we create more joy and hope and instil courage again? And that’s the power of a really beautiful, diverse line-up.
Last night, I was moved. It was beautiful from start to finish. I wasn’t familiar with some of the artists but now I’m downloading every song because, my goodness, I was so moved. And that’s part of what you guys want to do.
There is an element of intrigue. How do we create intrigue? Because you can’t come to a festival and know every single one. That would be boring. Some people have arrived and don’t know Fatomata Diawara, I must say that. I really want to place the light on our talent coordinator, Mariana [del Carmen] because she’s done a phenomenal job. I started the curation and she’s carried it alongside with me. And it’s been such a pleasure to honour musicians that aren’t generally commercially recognised and to create a platform for our local artists that they can use as a springboard.
The festival is often described as more than just a music event. What role do you believe it plays in shaping South Africa’s cultural identity today?
A big question is South Africans. Our identity is so fluid and what this festival has often meant for people is a secure space of belonging. From a soft side, I would say that this … allows people to show up as they are. That’s why what’s so beautiful is looking at the demographic last night. In particular, I was in the wings of Jacob Collier’s show, right in the front and there’s probably about a 10-year-old standing next to an almost 70-year-old.
Yesterday I heard of an 80-year-old who was bringing her older sister. If we are speaking to such a diverse audience, ultimately it means we’re speaking to the people as a whole. What that then means for people in terms of how they operate and move and feel is that they can have a sense of belonging and identity within Cape Town, which often people don’t feel.
This then … creates some sort of bridge of sorts. How do we create a bridge to finding this consistency within the cultural side of things? How do we create a system that really implements fairer conditions for creative people but also allows creative people to be creative?
Often we conform to a box with “commercially, this is how you have to package it and this is how it’s supposed to look”. In that, you often lose the creative spirit. This festival has been an anchor. It’s been beyond the social economic impact that it has on the city; it has an energetic community impact.
For me, that’s the main goal. How do we move the people and how do we create a sense of belonging? The festival plays a big role in that.
As one of the continent’s biggest jazz events, what are the biggest challenges in sustaining and growing the festival in the current economic and cultural climate?
There are most certainly challenges. When we’re looking at such a large-scale event, say for example, I think last night we had about 12 000 people — 12 000 bodies to look after and a massive workforce to support that.
But behind that workforce is the collaboration of a team that has worked year in and year out with creating and maintaining and nurturing relationships. Because we do rely on partnership.
How are we trying to envisage it now? Myself and co-director Carolyn Savage, how we are trying to place it is how do we create meaningful relationships that will serve our vision and serve the client or the partner’s vision too?
The key thing that we champion is partnering with incredible people to maintain meaningful relationships that serve the creative economy. Without that, it’s not possible. Funding will always be a challenge but we are lucky that the Survé family, who own and have run the festival for more than 20 years, have taken it upon themselves as it’s quite an endeavour to make sure that this festival will continue regardless of funding. That in itself keeps a spirit alive within the city, that maybe if it weren’t there, people would feel the void.
On access and inclusion, there’s often a conversation about who gets access to spaces like these. How is the festival working to be more inclusive, both for audiences and emerging artists?
That’s an important question: How do we integrate more and what is accessibility? And that’s something that’s challenging. Cape Town in itself, geographically, lots of people struggle to imagine that. It’s also a struggle to feel that it’s accessible and it’s limiting.
Also, the cost of living is one thing that is a great barrier of entry into Cape Town. How do we fix that? We partner again with meaningful people who are doing great work. For example, I’d love to shine a light right now on “Bridges for music” in Langa [township] because we’re working quite a bit with them … And that’s what we will be doing more of, because this music isn’t an elitist white genre.
This is a genre that belongs to everyone. And this is a genre that wasn’t started by white people. How do we take this to all communities? Very excitingly, in the future we can expect a few activations in and around, not just the centre of Cape Town.
This year’s festival included Amapiano DJs Scorpion Kings alongside traditional jazz acts, which sparked conversation. What informed that programming choice and how do you see Amapiano fitting into the broader vision of the festival?
What informed that decision is giving the people what they want. While we know that is jazz-adjacent, we also know that it’s a current genre that is also largely celebrated by our audience and then South Africa and African countries at large.
It’s important for us to remain inclusive while having our core focus on jazz. It most certainly was an intentional choice but in saying that, we understand that it looks and feels a little bit jazz, too jazz-adjacent but in our view and in mine in particular, it’s still something that needs to be celebrated.
The broader vision is most certainly to keep it jazz focused, to have the centre and the core of the festival to always be jazz but to then recognise and celebrate other genres that are deeply loved and celebrated by our audience.
On legacy and future direction, how do you see the Cape Town International Jazz Festival evolving over the next five to 10 years? What would success look like to you?
If we could become and maintain a household name throughout the year, if we could continue to inspire and provide opportunities and if we could be more than just the weekend every year, that is what success will look like.
This project will grow, and I believe that with the right people, it will continue to grow internally with our incredible team that have really started this new chapter. We can expect to see further takeover in terms of building the community nationally.
We [M&G] ran a FRIDAY cover saying “the Battle of the Jazz festivals” and asking if the Montreux Jazz Festival choosing the same days to host their festival as CTIJF was sabotage or friendly competition. What did you think?
Speaking of the overlap of many festivals this weekend, both Montreux Jazz Festival and K Day, which wasn’t a worry because I believe that we serve different markets.
[With the] Montreux Jazz Festival, I believe that there’s space for both of us. I believe that our local landscape needs it. And I believe that we need to remain communicative.
In allowing space for both of us, we not only will uplift local artists, we will support more vendors, suppliers. We won’t have to force vendors, suppliers, sponsors or attendees to choose. That’s the main thing here.
How do we create space for not just the Montreux Jazz Festival but also for the people who create these moments? Without them, none of this is possible. I want to reinstate this space for both festivals. But how do we communicate better so that this doesn’t only serve one party?
A cultural history of gambling in Africa – From Abbia to online betting:
Today, the online gambling market across Africa is worth billions of USD per year. Particularly, football betting, although online casinos are also increasing in popularity in some regions. But what was it like one hundred years ago? Were Africans gambling thousands of years ago?
This article will attempt to answer some of those questions and more. From historical gambling to the games introduced across Africa in colonial times to the modern enthusiastic adoption of online football betting and casinos in the 21st century, this is what you need to know about the history of gambling in Africa.
Ancient Africans Played Informal Gambling Games, but Written History is Limited.
The history of gambling games in Africa is somewhat hard to determine concretely. Much of precolonial African culture was recorded in oral histories, which were often erased or suppressed by colonial powers.
However, two popular traditional gambling games across Africa are Mancala and Abbia. Both of these games spanned the continent from sub-Saharan regions to the Cape of South Africa, and there is evidence of them being played for thousands of years.
Abbia is a game that involves pitching multi-faceted wooden carvings from a cup or bowl, and gamblers put bets on which faces will come up in which combinations.
Mancala is known by a multitude of names across Africa, but the core concept remains the same. Players move a series of beads or stones across a board, capturing each other’s pieces with diagonal moves. Although no wager is directly tied to the gameplay, it has historically been associated with gambling – including high-stakes bets of whole farms and cattle herds.
People were also well known to wager informally on events like wrestling matches or dancing contests.
Card Games and Sports Betting Arrived in Colonial Times
The colonial period of Africa’s history reshaped Africa’s culture in almost every way, and leisure and entertainment activities like gambling were not excluded from that.
Settlers and administrators brought with them card games and horse racing, and introduced organised betting. In the 18th century, billiards and horse racing became popular more widely with bettors in Nigeria. Horse racing in particular spread to some parts of the continent.
Despite colonial attempts to regulate or ban it at various times, Africans across the continent continued to gamble informally on dice games and card games throughout the period. Many of these blend the traditional, competitive and social aspects of ancient African gambling games with colonial settler gameplay elements.
During this time, religious attitudes across the continent also shaped gambling. Countries with significant Christian or Muslim populations have historically been more anti-gambling, but attitudes are changing in the 21st century.
South Africa Has Been a Leader in Online Gambling
Today, South Africa, in particular, is the largest gambling market in the region.
The country has had legal online gambling since the 1990s, and its growth has been spurred by investment in strong internet infrastructure and increasingly widespread smartphone adoption. Online gambling now makes R100 billion a year in revenues, and there are millions of bettors across the country. Particularly in sports betting, which drives 75% of betting activity. Although online casinos are also on the rise.
Much like South African communities of yesteryear would discuss where the best gambling halls and card rooms were, in today’s digital society, that role is filled by third-party review sites. These sites compare online casinos in a competitive market, so customers can evaluate their choices. In South Africa, operators offer diverse payment options, but also differing game collections and bonus offers. Being able to see everything on one platform is highly useful for prospective players.
Regulation also shapes South Africa’s market, as it does globally. While it remains somewhat split between different provinces, South Africa’s state-wide regulatory environment is stronger than in many African countries. Operators must comply with advertising rules, identity checks, and provide responsible gambling tools, creating a system similar to existing long-term markets in Europe and across the world.
What is the Market Like Today?
Governments have taken a diverse range of approaches to online gambling in the 21st century. Libya, Eritrea and Sudan are among the few countries that have outright banned gambling across their territory. Most governments have adapted, and offer some form of licensing and regulation.
Africa’s gamblers now overwhelmingly prefer betting on sports, particularly football. Mostly online, driven by a younger audience that is more tech savvy and is hugely interested in football. The English Premier League, in particular, is a popular betting attraction at sportsbooks across Africa, as are the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup when they are on.
Although online sports betting is more widely available, even if regulation is patchy, bettors continue to enjoy the social aspects of a retail betting shop.
Grey market offshore casinos and sportsbooks are also continually in operation across many African countries, where they are widely tolerated. Some countries, such as Kenya, have occasionally cracked down on offshore operators in some ways.
However, they are difficult to police, so most countries opt to open their own regulated and taxable markets instead. The total online gambling market in Africa was worth around 17 billion USD in 2025. That is only expected to continue to grow at around 10% per year by the end of this decade.
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