The legal services divisions of Rand Water, the largest water utility in Africa, is part of the “Group Governance Portfolio” business unit and consists of three departments: a department for operations, a department for strategy and a department for commercial work.

The structure of the legal services division within Rand Water has recently changed from that of a flat structure of generalist legal advisors reporting to a legal services manager, to its current organisation of specialist departments within the divisions. This substantial reorganisation was implemented in line with Rand Water’s strategy to expand further into Africa and ensure basic access to water to more people on the continent. Following a directive issued by South Africa’s Minister of Water and Sanitation that required the company’s footprint to spread into a new region, the legal team had to ensure that proper legal due diligence was undertaken to identify any risks that could affect Rand Water’s reputation negatively.

The high quality assessment of legal risks enabled Rand Water to provide water services within a legally sound contractual and legislative environment in a very short space of time. ‘The involvement of legal services from inception to finalisation in this instance has mapped the way forward on all future ministerial directives and strategic projects of this nature, eliminating time wastage and ensuring that the new strategic direction of Rand Water is achieved in a timely and cost effective manner’, Allarice Bosch, group legal services manager, says. Additionally, Rand Water’s legal team has been credited for devising a benefits sharing guideline to its intellectual property policy that aims to compensate Rand Water employees that invent solutions or designs that will enable the company to better its provision of water services or technology offerings.

‘The employee, by being compensated, feels like a worthy partner to Rand Water and continuously aims to deliver on such intellectual property, making this a win-win situation for both parties’, Bosch says.