💧 Waterless
Over the past decade, South Africa has made progress in school water infrastructure but there are still more than 4,000 schools that are reliant on water tankers or municipal taps outside the school grounds.
According to data from the Education Facility Management System reports published by the Department of Basic Education, there were 1,772 schools without water entirely in 2013. By 2018 that number had dropped to 0 and has remained there since.
However, having access to water does not mean it is reliable or even on the school property. There are still 4,208 schools that rely on external sources such as mobile tankers or municipal communal taps in 2026.
While the richest provinces, Gauteng (1.2% of schools) and Western Cape (9.1%), have very few schools without a water supply on the premises, the more economically vulnerable provinces such as Northern Cape (46.2%), North West (36.9%), Limpopo (21.7%), Eastern Cape (19.1%) have significantly more schools reliant on external water supplies such as water tankers and communal taps.
Schools relying on water tankers or communal taps
| Province | 2013 | 2026 |
| Eastern Cape | 1,672 | 953 |
| Free State | 231 | 156 |
| Gauteng | 492 | 25 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 1,350 | 1,153 |
| Limpopo | 1,737 | 779 |
| Mpumalanga | 691 | 227 |
| Northern Cape | 140 | 251 |
| North West | 378 | 530 |
| Western Cape | 466 | 134 |
📱 Instant payments
Before PayShap, sending money in South Africa meant waiting over a day for an EFT to clear. PayShap was built to fix that, offering instant, low-cost digital payments through mobile numbers and bank-generated ShapIDs, available 24/7 across 14 banks.
Three years after its March 2023 launch, the numbers show South Africans have embraced it. PayShap has processed 777-million instant transactions worth R709-billion. It’s proof, said Israel Skosana, chief product and scheme officer at PayInc, that “the market wants instant payments that are simple, interoperable and trusted”.
The platform has also expanded its offering. Since October 2024, PayShap has processed over 250,000 PayShap Requests, a feature allowing merchants to request instant payments directly from customers, a meaningful step towards replacing cash at the point of sale.
That shift matters beyond convenience. PayShap’s low-cost digital payments could help small merchants build transaction histories and access broader financial services, said Kagisho Dichabe, chairman of the Fintech Association of South Africa.
Looking ahead, PayInc plans to introduce QR-based payments, open the platform to fintechs, and integrate with existing card-acceptance infrastructure, moves that would significantly broaden PayShap’s reach. Electrum Software’s latest report predicts the growth of South African real-time payments by 2030. Download it here to learn more.
- Produced by The Outlier in partnership with Electrum, the next-generation payments software company, powering payments for banks and retailers.
💰 Old debt
The City of Johannesburg is facing a severe revenue crisis. By December 2025, residents, businesses and government entities owed R71.9-billion, with over 70% more than a year old and at serious risk of never being recovered.
The city is also failing to meet its own collection targets. It billed R37.2-billion between July and December 2025, but only collected R31.9-billion for rates, water, electricity and refuse removal.
To address the crisis, the city launched a fourth debt relief phase in November 2025, offering a 50% write-off to property owners valued below R2.5-million and businesses with turnover under R3-million, provided they repay the remaining 50%.
But past programmes offer little encouragement. Three previous phases recovered just over R500-million combined, less than 1% of the current debt. In December 2025, disconnection drives for electricity and water recovered only R140-million against R4.5-billion in identified arrears, casting doubt on whether this latest effort will succeed.
- Made in partnership with Our City News.
🛣️ Cape Town’s spending plans
Our chart this week looks at how the hotly debated N2 Edge wall project stacks up against some of the City of Cape Town’s other planned infrastructure projects over the next three years.
According to the municipality’s adjusted 2025/26 budget, which includes projected spending until 2027/28, the N2 Edge upgrade will cost a total of about R115-million: R7-million to design and about R108-million to build.
The City’s entire budgeted capital expenditure for urban mobility, which includes public transport and the N2 Edge project, will be R8.2-billion over three years, more than half of which is for massive roadworks to expand the MyCiti bus service. The N2 Edge project makes up about 1.3% of this budget.
Little is known about what the N2 Edge wall will look like or where it will start and end. The City has provided scant details. A 9km stretch of the vandalised existing boundary fence along the N2 will be rebuilt, lighting will be improved, and safety barriers will be placed around play areas, City officials have said.
The proposal is still in its “infancy stage”, mayco member for urban mobility Rob Quintas told GroundUp. Public participation is yet to take place.
- Read the full GroundUp story here.
On Tuesday 24 March we will host a free webinar with Joubert Roux, one of South Africa’s leading renewable energy entrepreneurs. Roux will unpack the country’s EV charging landscape, explore whether South Africa is ready for electric vehicles to go mainstream and share how off-grid solutions are already making it possible.
And a week later we will speak with Kevin Parry, a deputy director in the data visualisation team at Stats SA. Parry will take us behind the scenes of the decisions, tools and thinking that shape how Stats SA’s data is presented to the public, policymakers and the world.
- Register here to attend. Live attendance is free. Outlier members will get access to the recording of the webinar after the event.
We’re looking forward to the Solar & Storage Live Africa event next week. We’re a partner so use this link to register to attend for free. See you there.