Talk of dam and water supply projects worth tens of billions has drifted in the public political atmosphere for decades and its resurrection during elections has become a source of much public scepticism.
In her scene-setting budget vote speech in July, water & sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina hinted at the dark underworld of the sector, stating bluntly: “As a department, we are committed to zero tolerance to corruption and ensuring the promotion of good governance.”
She placed her finger on the critical point of corruption and fraud: procurement — suggesting there was an efficiency problem in the system.
Majodina expressed her dedication to “preventing improper expenditure” and said the department was continuing to clear historic incidents of “unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure”.
She said National Treasury and the law enforcement agencies were in on the corruption-busting action.
Premier Oscar Mabuyane, a vocal promoter of public job creation projects, says he will make it his mission to turn dreams into reality. In his legislature opening speech at Ntabankulu in August, he highlighted several big water projects in the province.
He spoke of 16 regional bulk infrastructure projects across all the province’s districts which would bring vital water to homes and industry.
One project, the R8bn Umzimvubu Water Project, has lived in clouds of political promises for 50 years.
When completed, it will include three major dams — Ntabelanga, Lalini and Mbokazi. Mabuyane said work was at an advanced stage in constructing one of the components: the Ntabelanga dam in Somerville village in Nqanqarhu, where access roads were also being built.
Earlier in 2024, the department of water & sanitation promised that construction would be completed, along with the access road, in November.
The dam, with a capacity of 490-million cubic metres, will be strung out between several villages in Mhlontlo and Elundi municipalities, and promises to provide water to 55,985 households in the OR Tambo district alone.
The department now says construction of the Ntabelanga dam is expected to be completed by March 2030 — in six years’ time.
The project is to create more than 6,000 construction jobs each year and to supply the OR Tambo and Joe Gqabi districts.
Mabuyane said his government was working with the water & sanitation minister and vowed that they would finish by 2029.
Majodina, in her budget vote speech, priced the dam, which will be built on the Tsitsa river — a major tributary of the Umzimvubu — at R8bn and praised how it would supply irrigation projects and homes in the area.
Also in the construction mix are:
- The R2bn Foxwood dam on the Koonap river, which is planned to supply Adelaide and irrigation projects;
- The R1bn Zalu dam to supply greater Lusikisiki, which was set out in a 2014 national water resource planning directorate feasibility study;
- The R600m Coerney balancing dam to stabilise water supply to Nelson Mandela Bay metro; and
- Raising the Gcuwa weir to improve supply to Mnquma.
These four projects are valued collectively at R5.4bn.
In Alfred Nzo, phase two of the Greater Mbizana bulk water scheme is planned to supply water to 200,000 people.
In addition, 14 bulk water supply and sanitation projects in the planning stages include the Ntabankulu dam, Zachtevlei dam in Joe Gqabi, Sundwana dam in Amathole, Caca dam in Chris Hani, Coffee Bay regional bulk supply in OR Tambo and Mayfield wastewater treatment works in Sarah Baartman.
Amathole district mayor Anele Ntsangani said 80% of the work is already done at the Dutywa site in upgrading water storage and reticulation, and 85% at Elliotdale’s Xhora Bulk Water Supply project.
Nationally, the department budgeted an eye-watering R135bn for water supply, Majodina said — R42.6bn in 2024/25, R46bn in 2025/26 and R46bn in 2026/27.
The department’s latest budget, the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF), consists of two parts: the main account to be spent on building infrastructure, and the water trading account to pay for it.
The main account is allocated R73bn over the MTEF — R24bn in 2024/25, R25bn in 2025/26 and R24bn in 2026/27.
Over these years, R36bn must be spent on conditional infrastructure grants for municipalities — R20bn on regional bulk infrastructure and R16bn for water services.
Majodina said R62bn was being spent in 2024 on municipal water & sanitation projects.
She said the purpose of the money was twofold — supplying municipal water and sanitation to areas that did not have it and to the indigent, and second generating income from water sales to municipalities.
She said: “Apart from these grants, the water services sector has to be self-financing through revenues from the sale of water.”
Aside from trying to stop corruption, she raised the critical issue of municipal under-expenditure, saying: “It is our intention to eradicate under-expenditure altogether, and to achieve 100% expenditure of our budget in the current financial year.
“This will be done by making our infrastructure procurement processes more efficient and effective and by improving our management of allocations to projects.”
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