Magalies Water Poised for Growth - Through Robust Governance - | April 2021 - Inside Education.

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Magalies Water Poised for Growth - Through Robust Governance - | April 2021 - Inside Education.
April 2021                  | April 2021

                                           Photo by: Eddie Mtshweni
Magalies Water
Poised for Growth
Through Robust Governance

                                  1.
Magalies Water Poised for Growth - Through Robust Governance - | April 2021 - Inside Education.
April 2021

Investing in Highly Skilled Personnel
Pays Off For Magalies Water Board
    Thebe Mabanga

The Magalies Water

                             Photo by: Eddie Mtshweni
Board has spent the
past five years refining
its strategy, capital ex-
penditure programme
and governance sys-
tems and is now poised
for its next phase of
growth. This is demon-
strated by the fact that
in the 2019/2020 fi-
nancial year, the organ-
isation met 38 of its 41
Key Performance Indi-
cators.

Magalies Water CEO
Sandile Mkhize attri-
butes the recent suc-
                                                    Magalies Water Board Chief Executive Officer
cess to teamwork and
                                                    Sandile Mkhize
having the right and
suitably skilled profes-
sionals at the right po-     The Water Board is                                Magalies Water Board
sition. “The Magalies        now set to embark on                              supplies seven munic-
Water Board has been         a five-year strategic                             ipalities, several com-
on a strong upward           journey during which                              mercial customers and
trajectory over the past     it hopes to expand its                            water service author-
few years” says Mkhize,      footprint and infrastruc-                         ities. The municipali-
who points to the finan-     ture by being allowed to                          ties are spread across
cial, technical, strategic   raise alternative sourc-                          Gauteng, the Bojanala
and governance perfor-       es of funding in order                            District in the North
mance.                       to spend R 5 billion on                           West and Limpopo. The
                             infrastructure.                                   municipalities include

                                                                                                      2.
Magalies Water Poised for Growth - Through Robust Governance - | April 2021 - Inside Education.
April 2021

the City of Tshwane and                         of Human Settlements,        from the same institu-
Moretele Local Munici-                          Water and Sanitation         tion. Mkhize also holds
pality, the Rustenburg                          as well as the Cooper-       an MBA from Milpark
Local Municipality as                           ative Governance and         Business School and a
well as Modimolle,                              Traditional Affairs in the   Management Advanced
Mokgopong and Mo-                               North West province.         Programme from Wits
ses Kotane. There is                                                         Business School. He
also the Bela Bela and                          Mkhize leads a highly        has also completed a
Thabazimbi Local Mu-                            skilled 8 person execu-      Senior Executive Pro-
nicplaities that the en-                        tive and brings a wealth     gramme from Harvard
tity covers.                                    of experience and a          Business School and a
Its commercial cus-                             solid academic back-         Diploma in Advanced
tomers include the                              ground to a role he has      Project   Management
Royal Bafokeng busi-                            occupied since 2016.         from Damelin.
ness empire, including                          He holds a BSc in
its administration and                          chemistry and microbi-        One of the entity’s re-
Platinum Mine, the Si-                          ology from the Univer-       cent notable achieve-
yanda Bakgathla Plati-                          sity of KwaZulu-Natal.       ment on governance is
num Mine, a Glencore                            He also holds a B-tech       achieving a clean audit
smelter and chrome                              in Biochemistry from         for the 2019/2020 fi-
mines.                                          the Durban Universi-         nancial year. Mkhize
                                                ty of Technology and         traces this accomplish-
The Water Authorities                           a Masters in Environ-        ment back to 2011,
include the Department                          mental Biotechnology
Photo by: Eddie Mtshweni

                      Magalies Water Board headquarters in
                      Rustenburg, North West

                                                                                                 3.
Magalies Water Poised for Growth - Through Robust Governance - | April 2021 - Inside Education.
April 2021

                                                                                Photo by: Eddie Mtshweni
  Magalies Water CEO Sandile Mkhize

when Magalies Water         which still had adverse     3 years until best prac-
obtained    unqualified     findings. “We found         tices are entrenched.
audits over a 10-year       that the supply chain
period.                     structure was not opti-     Magalies Water Board’s
                            mal” says Mkhize. The       next challenge is to
The company spent a         Supply Chain Division       now grow its revenue
number of years ad-         has since been restruc-     from the R834 million
dressing findings from      tured and has suitable      to over R1 billion with-
both the Auditor Gen-       personnel appointed.        in the next few years.
eral and the company’s                                  Mkhize says they have
own internal audit divi-    The task team then had      a two-pronged ap-
sion. For the 2019/20       to work through both        proach. “The first is to
financial year, Magalies    internal audit and AG’s     improve efficiency in
Water then set up a         findings until all errors   current operations to
Clean Audit Task team       were satisfactorily elim-   increase revenue [and]
led by the CFO Mathsi-      inated to obtain the        reduce costs” he says
diso Tabane and com-        thumbs up from the AG.      noting how this in-
prising senior manag-       But how will this clean     cludes improving reve-
ers and members of the      audit be maintained?        nue collection.
Board’s Audit and Risk      “That is the most diffi-
Committee.                  cult task,” says Mkhize.    Of the R834 million,
                            He notes that the board     R738 million (or 88%)
The last area to be tack-   has decided not to dis-     comes from the sale of
led to achieve a clan       band the Clean Audit        water. Other incomes
audit was supply chain,     Task Team for another       come     from    items

                                                                           4.
Magalies Water Poised for Growth - Through Robust Governance - | April 2021 - Inside Education.
April 2021

such as management           changed in 1994 at the                            KPIs that Magalies
and tender fees as           dawn of democracy to                              Water Board could not
well as cost recovery        include the supply to                             meet is the average
income of R524 000.          residential customers.                            debtor days, which
Analysing water sam-         80 % of its income now                            Magalies had targeted
ples at the Magalies         comes from municipal-                             to have an average of
Water Board laborato-        ities, while industrial                           50 days but could only
ry in Brits brought in       customers account for                             manage 85 days as
about R 880 000 in           20%.                                              municipalities default-
the last financial year.                                                       ed.
Government        grants     This is why the state of
and subsidies come to        municipal finances is                             Mkhize says they have
R51 million, or about        an area the entity mon-                           regular engagements
6,1 % of total revenue,      itors closely. “It is a ma-                       with municipalities to
showing that the entity      jor concern” says Mkh-                            look for ways to assist
is sufficiently self-sus-    ize “Municipal finances                           them. Assistance can
taining.                     are under strain, and                             take the form of pay-
                             this shows in current                             ment discounts, or In-
The Magalies Water           payment patterns” he                              terest freeze, or allow
Board was established        notes that even munic-                            them to keep the cur-
in 1969 to specifically      ipalities who were reli-                          rent account up to date
supply mines on the          able payers prior to the                          while freezing historical
platinum belt with           Covid 19 outbreak are                             debt.
water. Its mandate was       now lagging. One of the
                                                                               What makes municipal
                                                                               support more important
                                                    Photo by: Eddie Mtshweni

                                                                               is that the North West
                                                                               province is predomi-
                                                                               nantly rural with poor,
                                                                               indigent     households
                                                                               who are supplied with
                                                                               free basic services in-
                                                                               cluding water and the
                                                                               cost carried by the mu-
                                                                               nicipality.

                                                                               The second part of
   Magalies Water CEO Sandile Mkhize with Board
   Chairperson Pinky Mokoto                                                    growing revenue is in-
                                                                               frastructure expansion.

                                                                                                   5.
Magalies Water Poised for Growth - Through Robust Governance - | April 2021 - Inside Education.
April 2021

   The Science Laboratory.

Magalies Water has           guide to developing           connected to water and
set a capital expendi-       new projects and refur-       sanitation facilities and
ture budget of R 5 bil-      bishing existing infra-       they benefit from free
lion over the next five      structure. Through the        basic water supply.
years. Mkhize says this      Master Plan, Magalies
will be partly funded        Water has been able to        He also notes that apart
by the water board’s         grow its asset base from      from supplying mining
own revenue but also         R 1 billion to R 3 bil-       and light manufactur-
through partnerships         lion, with about R 1,7        ing industries, they also
and they have roped in       billion, or just over half,   support the tourism in-
the National Treasury’s      attributable to pipelines     dustry, which is crucial
Government Technical         and reservoirs.               to the province but cur-
Advisory Centre to help                                    rently reeling from the
them structure Public        Mkhize is satisfied that      effects of Covid 19.
Private    Partnerships      the water board is meet-
(PPPs).                      ing both its commercial       Under Mkhize and his
                             and social mandate. He        executive team’s lead-
In 2013, Magalies Wa-        points out that people        ership, the entity is set
ter adopted an Infra-        in towns and rural vil-       for an exciting period of
structure Master Plan,       lages where their infra-      growth.
which has been the           structure traverses are

                                                                               6.
Magalies Water Poised for Growth - Through Robust Governance - | April 2021 - Inside Education.
April 2021

Robust project pipeline
requires funding
     Thebe Mabanga

    The Klipdrift Water Treatment
    Works Upgrade

The Magalies Water             In the 2013/2014 fi-       2 and 3, the Klipdrift
Board has a robust             nancial year, the Water    Water Treatment Works
pipeline of projects that      Board adopted its Infra-   Upgrade, the More-
will need the board to         structure Master Plan.     tele South Bulk Water
aggressively raise fund-       Under the Master Plan,     Supply Scheme, the
ing over the next few                                     Klipvoor Bulk Water
years. This is to help         Magalies Water identi-     Supply Scheme as well
the entity build on proj-      fied a total of five ma-   as the Wallmannsthal
ects that were success-        jor projects, at times     Water Treatment Works
fully delivered over the       broken into phases to      Upgrade. The identified
past few years to build        upgrade its infrastruc-    and completed project
and maintain its infra-        ture. These are Pilanes-   staddle the entity’s sup-
structure.                     berg Bulk Water Supply     ply area of Gauteng, the
                               Scheme, Phases 1,          Bojanala District in

                                                                              7.
Magalies Water Poised for Growth - Through Robust Governance - | April 2021 - Inside Education.
April 2021

   The Wallmannsthal Water Treatment
   Works Upgrade

the North West and         Magalies water contrib-     completed at a cost of
Limpopo.                   uted R 335 million to       R222, 5 million in Oc-
                           the total cost, or 20%.     tober 2018. It services
The first phase of the     The department of Wa-       about 23 000 house-
Pilanesberg       Water    ter and Sanitation con-     holds in Mabersksraal
Supply Scheme was          tributed R 555 million,     village in the Moses Ko-
completed at a cost of     or 33% while the mines      tane Local Municipality,
R 1,68 billion. It en-     contributed the balance     North West. The Klip-
tailed the construction    of R 800 million, or        drift Water Treatment
of a 43 km pipeline        47%. This is the fund-      Works was upgraded at
and a 50 Million litres    ing model that Magalies     a cost of R323 million,
Mafenya reservoir in       Water currently uses on     also around October
its South Section. The     all its projects. The en-   2018. The entity has
North section required     tity has now applied to     about ten unfounded
new pipeline plant up-     the National Treasury to    projects for which par-
grade, a new reservoir     be allowed to raise debt    tial funding was allocat-
and pump station. The      on open market to con-      ed by Magalies Water
projects benefits more     tribute more to project     or no funding is yet in
than 180 000 house-        funding.                    place.
holds across four mu-
nicipalities  including    Other completed proj-
Rustenburg and Thaba-      ects include Tuschen-
zimbi and three plati-     komst Ruighoek Pipe-
num mines.                 line and Pump-Station,

                                                                           8.
Magalies Water Poised for Growth - Through Robust Governance - | April 2021 - Inside Education.
April 2021

Magalies Water Board Runs A Tight
Ship Despite Covid19 Challenges
     Thebe Mabanga

The interim board of

                            Photo by: Eddie Mtshweni
the Magalies Water
has succeeded in lead-
ing the entity through
an exponential growth
phase, despite the
Covid19 storms. Pin-
ky Mokoto has been
the interim chairperson
tasked with leading the
board and reflects sat-
isfactorily on their term
in office. “Magalies Wa-
ter continues to grow
exponentially as an or-
                                                       Magalies Water Chairperson Pinky Mokoto
ganisation” she says in
the entity’s annual re-
port, noting its revenue       The aim is to be                                 five goals in health and
growth from trading ac-        achieved through in-                             safety compliance were
tivities from R721 mil-        vestment in systems,                             met, most notably dis-
lion to R789 million as        processes and infra-                             infection efficiency.
well as its surplus from       structure that ensures
R121 million to R169           the continuous, reliable                         The next two goals are
million from an asset          supply of clean and                              the provision of reliable
base of R3,5 billion,          safe potable water.                              and sustainable water
which is the result of a                                                        services to customers,
successful investment          Under       the      cur-                        and all four goals were
programme.                     rent board’s leader-                             met and the manage-
                               ship, Magalies Water                             ment of customer and
Magalies Water Board’s         achieved 93 % across                             stakeholder relations,
main strategic goal is to      a broad range of areas,                          where four KPIs were
be a leading provider of       starting with the goal                           realised. The Water
quality water services         to provide quality pota-                         Board also succeeded
in the country.                ble water, where all                             in achieving its goal of

                                                                                                    9.
Magalies Water Poised for Growth - Through Robust Governance - | April 2021 - Inside Education.
April 2021

   The Cullinan Water Treatment Plant

profitability and positive    water.                     Mokoto highlights this
financial returns as well                                important [part] of the
as contributing towards       Mokoto notes that the      service delivery leg of
the development and           lockdown brought by        Magalies Water man-
transformation agenda.        Covid19 had partic-        date.
                              ularly severe impact
The outbreak of the           during the last quarter    This requires water
Covid19 pandemic in           of the financial year.     boards to be innova-
March last year brought       “Moving forward, the       tive to improve efficien-
to sharp focus the need       impact could be felt on    cy. The other area was
for clean, reliable water     the overall productivi-    that of maintenance for
supply but also threat-       ty of the organisation,    continuous operations.
ened Magalies Water           projected revenue fig-     This required the wa-
Board growth trajecto-        ures spiralled down,       ter agency to operate
ry. Mokoto says for           our liquidity position     either a higher number
Magalies Water, the           became weakened, our       of shifts or longer hours
pandemic        presented     appetite for investment    with fewer workers.
operational challenges.       was also negatively        Covid19 posed a threat
Firstly, parts of the oper-   impacted upon.” At         to operations since in
ations can only be per-       the height of Covid19,     some cases, mainte-
formed manually and           Magalies Water found       nance work took longer
with onsite presence.         itself supplying 26 wa-    to complete. Mokoto
This include monitoring       ter tanks to schools and   says Covid19 requires
of plants and delivery of     communities in need,       the organisation and

                                                                             10.
April 2021

workers to be more ef-                                    with commercial cus-
ficient and extract more      Despite these challeng-     tomers, most notable
value from limited re-        es, the entity still man-   the mines that they ser-
sources.                      aged to obtain a clean      vice.
                              audit. “This success
Another area that has         is a direct result of the   Mokoto says for the
been heavily impacted         hard work and dedica-       short term, Magalies
by Covid19 has been           tion by Magalies em-        Water Board will use its
revenue collection, as        ployees with the strong     investment surplus to
municipal       finances      support and guidance        grow the organisation.
came under strain and         by the board” Mokoto        For the 2019/ 2020
some customers lagged         says.                       financial year, the sur-
on payment. To address                                    plus for the year stood
this, Mokoto says Mag-        Magalies Water Board        at R 169 million, up
alies Water Board will        funds its operations        from R 121 million
embark on aggressive          from its own revenue        from the previous year.
collection drive while        and funds its capital       The surplus will come
engaging municipali-          projects from its own       under pressure this
ties and departments          resources, the Regional     year due to the antici-
like Co-operative Gov-        Bulk Water infrastruc-      pated effect of Covid19
ernance and Traditional       ture Grant from the De-     on revenues. The sur-
Affairs about the need        partment of Water and       plus come from a total
to assist municipalities      Sanitation as well as       revenue of R834 mil-
meet their obligations.       through partnerships        lion, less expenses of

                                                                               Photo by: Eddie Mtshweni

   The Magalies Water Board

                                                                              11.
April 2021

R665 million. The ex-

                                                                               Photo by: Eddie Mtshweni
penses includes R480
million on cost of water
sales and R96 million
in staff costs for the en-
tity’s 288 employees.
Magalies Water’s other
strategic goal is to in-
crease its footprint to
cover as much, if not
all, of the North West
province, from its cur-
rent base of Bojanala
District. Magalies Water
has also applied to ex-
tend its footprint in Lim-
popo to include Lepha-
lale, which includes the
Medupi power station,
which would be a lu-
crative customer.

The North West prov-            Magalies Board Chairperson Pinky Mokoto
ince is currently ser-
viced by four water
boards, including Rand       as being to strengthen      gent areas. This means
Water and Sedibeng           partnerships, including     that it must supply the
Water, and in addi-          negotiating to provide      water through capped
tion to Magalies Wa-         water in niche areas        tariffs and to offer com-
ter. Mokoto says taking      with clean energy sup-      munity assistance, in-
over the other areas         pliers who require ex-      cluding supplying tanks
would entail a transfer      tensive water use to op-    in areas and schools
of assets at a reason-       erate their technology.     that are needy. Mag-
able cost for the trans-     Mokoto points out that      alies also provides com-
fer to be facilitated by     a crucial part of the en-   munity education on
national government          tity’s social mandate is    water use and conser-
                             supplying water to mu-      vation. “We also assist
She now sees the enti-       nicipalities located in     communities through
ty’s next challenge          mostly rural and indi       the employment of lo-

                                                                             12.
April 2021

     The Vaalkop Water Treatment Plant

cals in our infrastruc-        mostly poor but require    be sustainable without
ture projects”                 water the most. This is    bailouts from govern-
                               why Mokoto sees the        ment. “Magalies Water,
The biggest challenge          expansion of Magalies      as a self-funded entity,
that Magalies Water            footprint as being crit-   achieved its noble goals
faces is the shortage          ical to address these      without reliance on the
of funds for invest-           issues through increase    fiscus and through col-
ment in its R5 billion         in revenue and access      laboration with stake-
capital     expenditure        to water bodies.           holders for the benefit
programme over the                                        of our communities
next five years as well        Mokoto emphasises          in our supply areas”
as shortage of quality         that it’s important for    Mokoto says.
raw water to supply to         state owned entities
communities who are            like Magalies Water to

                                                                             13.
April 2021

World class facility to
keep water safe
    Thebe Mabanga

                                                                              Photo by: Eddie Mtshweni
  Paki Dikobe Quality Assurance Officer

The Magalies Water            and Wallmansthal to       the beginning of 2019
Board owns a state-of-        ensure that they com-     in partnership with the
the-art scientific test-      ply to South Africa’s     Department of Water
ing laboratory in Brits,      national water drinking   and Sanitation has a
North West, which it          standards, Sans 41.       capacity to conduct 40
uses to ensure that           The laboratory is also    000 tests annually. It
the water it supplies is      set to provide services   is a strategic asset for
clean and safe but also       ranging from water        Magalies Water Board
helps farmers and in-         quality testing and       and a revenue earner.
dustrial users in its sup-    sampling, research and    In the 2019/2020 fi-
ply area test their own       monitoring of drinking    nancial year, lab anal-
water samples.                water supplies, process   ysis brought in R 880
                              monitoring of water and   000.
The lab tests water from      wastewater works and
Magalies Water Board          environmental monitor-    The laboratory has the
for treatment plants in       ing of rivers and dams.   capability to conduct
Cullinan, outside Pre-        The facility, which was   both chemical and mi-
toria, Klipdrift, Vaalkop     formally launched at      crobiology tests. For

                                                                           14.
April 2021

Photo by: Eddie Mtshweni

                           Magalies Water Board’s
                           Lerato Mabiletsa

  chemical testing, water                           has capabilities to test   sophisticated means.
  is tested from the ba-                            the water for any oth-     Water is commonly
  sics of taste, smell, and                         er metals in may con-      tested for E. Coli, which
  colour. This used to be                           tain, even at ultra-low    must be totally absent
  done physically but is                            levels of concentration.   from drinking water. It
  now fully mechanised,                             The test for metal is      is then tested for the
  with specialised equip-                           conducted by spraying      presence of Chlorophyl,
  ment for each of the                              droplets through UV        the green in leaves and
  tests.                                            lighting.                  algae, which is toler-
                                                                               able in low amounts.
  Water is then tested for                          In the microbiology sec-   The most common
  mercury, whose pres-                              tion of the laboratory,    types are Chlorophyl A
  ence is lethal for human                          water can be tested for    and 565.
  consumption. This test                            a wide range of micro-       The lab can then test
  is again on dedicated                             organisms using meth-      for more than a dozen
  specialised equipment.                            ods including filtration   other types of microor-
  The laboratory also                               but also through more      ganisms such as

                                                                                                   15.
April 2021

Photo by: Eddie Mtshweni

                      Mmabatho Morake, Assistant Hydro
                      Parasitology Lab

coliforms,     including                       Farmers also bring wa-      and a B-Tech in Water
faecal coliforms and                           ter samples from bore       Care. In a career span-
might be found even in                         holes for testing while     ning some 21 years,
treated sewerage water,                        industrial users can        she has worked for the
Salmonella as well as                          also make use of the        Council for Scientific
yeast and moulds. The                          laboratory to test for      and Industrial Research
laboratory also pos-                           water suitability for use   (CSIR) and the Tshwane
sesses capability of an-                       as an input.                University of Technolo-
alysing any discovered                                                     gy. Akinwekoni leads
microorganism down                             The laboratory is man-      a team of bright sparks
to its genetic composi-                        aged by Dr Vhahan-          and energetic water sci-
tion in separate isolat-                       gwele      Akinwekomi,      entists, most under the
ing, testing, and read-                        who is the Scientific       age of 35. Paki Dikobe,
ing section for DNA to                         Services Manager. She       the Quality Assurance
assess its origin and                          holds a BSc. Honours        Manager at the lab says
prevalence in a water                          in Chemistry, a B-Tech      they appreciate the im-
stream.                                        in Project Management       portance of producing

                                                                                              16.
April 2021

Photo by: Eddie Mtshweni

                           Paki Dikobe Quality Assurance Manager

consistently accurate                              can be increased if re-    hosts school tours to
results for Magalies                               quired.                    provide career guid-
Water and other cus-                                                          ance, along with the
tomers. The lab re-                                The lab also under-        rest of Magalies Water
ceives weekly samples                              takes an outreach and      Board.
from Magalies Water                                educational function. At
various water treatment                            its opening its hosted
plants and stations.                               300 maths and science
Frequency of testing                               learners and regularly

                                                                                                17.
April 2021

   18.
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