Aligned to the Cape Town Declaration signed at the Africa Water Investment Summit in August 2025, an innovative municipal capability programme has been showing how collaborative water investments can deliver tangible results for communities while also building climate resilience.
The Municipal Capability and Partnership Programme (MCPP) has transformed water service delivery in the municipalities where Kumba Iron Ore operates. Launched by Anglo American in partnership with the Department of Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs and implemented with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the programme addresses the declaration’s call for creating enabling environments by strengthening municipal capabilities and facilitating collaboration between government and industry.
In Tsantsabane Local Municipality, water quality compliance has dramatically improved, with Blue Drop scores increasing from 0% to 56% for the Postmasburg scheme and from 50% to 56% for Postdene and Jenn-Haven schemes. The municipality was named third best performing Water Service Authority in the Northern Cape in 2023.
Similarly, Gamagara Local Municipality saw its Blue Drop score rise from 11% for the Kathu Water Scheme and 0% for the Dibeng Water Sceheme in 2020 to 54.71% across all schemes by 2023.
The programme exemplifies the declaration’s emphasis on innovative financing mechanisms and local ownership. Both municipalities are in the process of submitting substantial Budget Facility for Infrastructure (BFI) applications to National Treasury facilitated by Infrastructure South Africa – Tsantsabane for R671.8 million and Gamagara for R1.309 billion – to enable critical bulk infrastructure development. These applications are critical to creating an enabling environment for communities and business, and leverage collaborative planning between municipalities, mines and government partners.
Being located in South Africa’s driest province, Tsantsabane and Gamagara local municipalities are heavily dependent on groundwater. Through the MCPP, groundwater management has been revolutionised through locally owned solutions. Both municipalities now have comprehensive groundwater management plans and standard operating procedures, enabling teams to maintain boreholes in-house rather than relying on external service providers. This reduces operational costs while building internal technical capacity. The municipal officials are also being trained to proactively update the groundwater management plan themselves to ensure it is always current and relevant.
“We recognise that Anglo American’s current asset portfolio in South Africa is located in water-stressed regions,” says Musa Jack, MCPP programme manager at Anglo American. “The MCPP demonstrates how strategic partnerships can build resilient communities capable of managing water resources beyond the life of mining operations.”
In line with the declaration’s climate resilience priorities, and the importance of improving water security, the MCPP is supporting with reducing high levels of water losses in both municipalities. The programme donated approximately R900 000 worth of materials and deployed an onsite resource to supplement the municipal plumbing teams to repair water leaks, aimed at reducing water losses.
“MCPP support made a huge difference in our Water Balance reporting, which was a foundation for our Water Conservation Plan,” says Ditebogo Sebuasengwe, Gamagara PMU manager. “Through the programme, accurate population data was collected and is being used for the BFI application, which is going to make an enormous difference in the lives of the Gamagara residents once approved. The impact of MCPP is making waves at district, provincial and national level. Impactful relationships have been formed through this programme, enabling information sharing and better understanding of municipal environment.”
Water infrastructure mapping has expanded dramatically, with both Tsantsabane and Gamagara increasing their mapped reticulation systems from 40% to 80%. This enhanced data enables proactive maintenance and reduces service disruptions during extreme weather events.
“Access to clean and reliable water is fundamental to thriving communities,” says Thando Njoko, social performance principal at Kumba. “We are dedicated to working alongside local partners to ensure sustainable water solutions that make a meaningful difference in people’s daily lives. This initiative reflects our ongoing commitment to being a responsible partner in the communities where we operate.”
Comments Cindi Mathebula, Tsantsabane water superintendent: “What I value from this programme is that we’ve learnt and achieved a lot. We started doing our own Water and Sanitation Infrastructure Operations and Maintenance Plans, Water Safety Plans, you name it. These are basic requirements for a water services authority, and we did not have them in the municipality. Through the MCPP and CSIR’s implementation team, we were not only involved in compiling these instruments, but in using them and making them our own.”
The programme’s success in Gamagara and Tsantsabane local municipalities validates the partnership approach, showing that collaboration in water service delivery can strengthen capabilities and place the municipalities in a position to improve service delivery, financial sustainability and climate resilience when underpinned by strong local partnerships and capacity building.
This innovative model offers a replicable blueprint for water services partnerships across Africa’s mining regions, demonstrating the potential for achieving the declaration’s ambitious goals through sustained collaboration between government, industry and communities.