With 47% of assessed wastewater systems in a critical state and international arrivals up 12.4%, Tsebo urges businesses to judge cleaning by the risks controlled.
South Africa’s water-system failures and growing visitor numbers are putting cleaning and hygiene under greater operational pressure ahead of the festive season, according to Tsebo Cleaning Solutions and Hygiene Solutions.
In its fourth-quarter 2026 outlook, the company argues that businesses need stronger evidence that facilities services are protecting people and keeping operations running.
“A building can look clean and still be vulnerable,” Tsebo states.
The warning comes against a difficult infrastructure backdrop. Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation reported on 9 June 2026 that 47% of assessed wastewater systems, 396 systems, were in a critical state in 2025, compared with 39%, or 334 systems, in 2022. National non-revenue water remained at 47.3%.
These figures describe different problems: the condition of wastewater systems and water that generates no revenue, including through losses and billing failures. Together, they underline the need for businesses to understand their dependence on reliable water services.
For a hotel, hospital or food-service operation, interrupted supply can affect laundry, sanitation and routine cleaning. Tsebo’s outlook places water resilience alongside hygiene and pest prevention as priorities for facilities teams.
The commercial case for water efficiency is already visible. A GreenCape case study published in 2025 documented laundry wastewater recycling at Mediclinic Southern Africa, reporting water-use reductions of 23% to 70% across six hospital sites and estimated combined annual savings of R1.49 million.
Growing visitor numbers add another pressure. South Africa recorded 6,576,169 international tourist arrivals between January and July 2026, an increase of 12.4% compared with the same period in 2025, according to government figures published in August 2026.
National arrivals do not predict demand at every facility. They do, however, provide a reason for hospitality and visitor-facing businesses to review expected volumes before the year-end peak. Tsebo’s outlook calls for cleaning frequencies and supporting services to reflect actual site conditions.
Evidence from healthcare illustrates why measuring hygiene matters. A study conducted in 2015 across 11 wards at Groote Schuur Hospital, and published in 2016, found that hand-hygiene compliance before patient contact increased from 34% to 76%. Compliance after patient contact rose from 47% to 82%.
The intervention used the World Health Organization’s multimodal hand-hygiene improvement approach. These were improvements in compliance; the study did not establish corresponding reductions in infection rates.
A separate Egyptian critical-care study published in 2024 found that Gram-negative bacteria accounted for 45.6% of samples collected from high-touch surfaces before enhanced cleaning and 16.3% afterwards. Such findings reinforce the value of assessing hygiene through evidence beyond visual appearance. “People remain at the centre of effective cleaning and hygiene,” the company states.
For businesses preparing for the festive season, the immediate challenge is to turn priorities into clear operating decisions: where failure would cause the most disruption, what should trigger intervention, and what evidence will demonstrate improvement.
A completed cleaning schedule answers one question. Business leaders increasingly need it to answer another: how effectively are their people, customers and operations being protected?