{"id":95795,"date":"2026-02-12T16:48:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T16:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-directs-ministers-to-skip-sona-for-water-crisis"},"modified":"2026-02-12T18:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:24:26","slug":"ramaphosa-directs-ministers-to-skip-sona-for-water-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-directs-ministers-to-skip-sona-for-water-crisis","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa Directs Ministers to Skip SONA for Water Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina and her counterpart in Cooperative Governance, Velenkosini Hlabisa, will not be attending Thursday\u2019s State of the Nation Address.<\/p>\n<p>This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered them and their deputies to instead deal with the ongoing water crisis in Gauteng.<\/p>\n<p>Some parts of the province have been struggling with water shortages, leading to a number of protests.<\/p>\n<p>The two ministers were told to sit out the festivities this evening as the ongoing water crisis in some parts of Gauteng and the frustration of many residents has caught the President\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered all hands on deck until the situation is resolved.<\/p>\n<p>Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, says it is important that the different sectors of government are in one room for a coordinated and quicker response.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are not sent to Johannesburg alone; they are sent to Tshwane too. That\u2019s why Deputy Water Minister David Mahlobo\u2014because he had not reached Cape Town\u2014started in Tshwane yesterday, because the people of Tshwane do not have water. They are not unique, but you need to say what are the immediate pressures to intervene that will alleviate that problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi issued a public apology following his comments on Wednesday, where he said the water crisis in the province forced him to take a bath at a hotel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina and her counterpart in Cooperative Governance, Velenkosini Hlabisa, will not be attending Thursday\u2019s State of the Nation Address. This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered them and their deputies to instead deal with the ongoing water crisis in Gauteng. Some parts of the province have been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":95794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-95795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ramaphosa Directs Ministers to Skip SONA for Water Crisis - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina and her counterpart in Cooperative Governance, Velenkosini Hlabisa, will no ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-directs-ministers-to-skip-sona-for-water-crisis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ramaphosa Directs Ministers to Skip SONA for Water Crisis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina and her counterpart in Cooperative Governance, Velenkosini Hlabisa, will no ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-directs-ministers-to-skip-sona-for-water-crisis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-12T16:48:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-12T18:24:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770908013.47044.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-directs-ministers-to-skip-sona-for-water-crisis#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-directs-ministers-to-skip-sona-for-water-crisis\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ramaphosa Directs Ministers to Skip SONA for Water Crisis\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-12T16:48:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-12T18:24:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-directs-ministers-to-skip-sona-for-water-crisis\"},\"wordCount\":253,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-directs-ministers-to-skip-sona-for-water-crisis#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770908013.47044.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-directs-ministers-to-skip-sona-for-water-crisis#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-directs-ministers-to-skip-sona-for-water-crisis\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-directs-ministers-to-skip-sona-for-water-crisis\",\"name\":\"Ramaphosa Directs Ministers to Skip SONA for Water Crisis - 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