OR Tambo District Municipality mayor Mesuli Ngqondwana has admitted the council is still facing an uphill battle to respond to water-related complaints from the communities it serves.
The district authority is responsible for providing potable water to a population of 1.4-million people spread across nine towns and nearly 1,000 village communities in five local municipalities.
However, the mayor said he was not impressed with the turnaround times from staff in dealing with water challenges and blamed it on thin capacity in the municipality’s water and sanitation department.
Addressing the institution’s policy review workshop last week, Ngqondwana said: ”Our current staff at water services, are they proportionate to how we are supposed to respond to the water challenges at the moment?
“Looking at the size of the institution and the size of the communities we serve, the answer is no.
“But despite this, there are other issues we must look at if we want to build bigger teams. We are very thin in an area that defines us.”
Though the district municipality had more than 1,300 employees on its books, he said it was important to look closely at its staffing in the water and sanitation department.
Four years ago, the Mthatha-based district council was rocked by deep division which saw two parallel structures emerge — both claiming to be the legitimate authority in the municipality — one reportedly led by then mayor Thokozile Sokanyile and the other by then council speaker Xolile Nkompela.
It led to the municipality being placed under administration by parliament at the request of the Eastern Cape government.
This ultimately saw its annual budget withheld by the National Treasury, forcing it to operate on an unfunded budget, with service delivery projects coming to a complete halt.
But Ngqondwana said the municipality was able to overcome all those problems and was now on a positive trajectory.
However, he was worried about the response times and the efficiency of the municipal water services staff.
He said more warm bodies were needed to beef up the department.
“As we are seated here, we cannot assemble 10 teams to work on different problems simultaneously. We do not have that capacity.
“Now tell me, how many villages do we have? How many [water] schemes do we have?
“Now that tells us that our capacity is so thin.
“I cannot be satisfied if the director or general manager cannot assemble a minimum of 10 teams to go to different places resolving problems happening today.”
In 2025, the district municipality revealed it had spent more than R200m in the last three years on repairing stolen or vandalised water infrastructure.
Up to 13% of potable water, ready for distribution to households, businesses and departments in Mthatha alone, was lost through water leaks every year.
According to municipal spokesperson Ncebakazi Kolwane, the council has a newly approved organogram of 1,661 positions, with 1,380 staff currently employed across all departments.
“For the 2025/2026 financial year, the employee costs budget for the infrastructure services department stood at more than R256m.
“This allocation must comply with national norms on employee costs, a point emphasised by the executive mayor, as we move into a phase of strengthening capacity without breaching compliance thresholds,” she said this week.
The water and sanitation department has 498 staff against the approved structure of 871 positions, a shortfall of 373 people.
Kolwane said Ngqondwana’s remarks about thin capacity stemmed directly from the current staffing reality.
Many of the positions that would strengthen capacity could not be filled yet as they were newly created and needed to undergo job evaluation by the provincial assessment committee.
This meant the department was operating at almost half the capacity required to service a geographically vast area, she said.
“An ideal scenario would allow a minimum of 10 dedicated response teams covering bursts, leaks, pump failures and maintenance across the five local municipalities.
“This directly aligns with the mayor’s call today to ‘fix the backbone and strengthen the core’ of water services,” she said.
“The number of water-related complaints fluctuates daily across the district.
“The majority require physical site attendance, which places pressure on the limited teams available.”
Kolwane said the impact of relying on too few teams included longer turnaround times for burst pipes and breakdowns in the water supply networks, slower resolution times for mechanical and electrical failures, an overstretched workforce and cumulative service backlogs in high-demand communities.
Mthatha Ratepayers and Residents’ Association spokesperson Madyibi Ngxekana said though the water service had greatly improved in Mthatha, the reality was that some of the water infrastructure was more than 50 years old in some parts of the town.
But he accused the district water services staff of having a lax attitude when it came to responding to emergency water problems.
Eastern Cape Chamber of Business president Vuyisile Ntlabati said water supply in some parts of the district was not consistent and adversely affected businesses.
Some like restaurants, hair salons and car washes were often forced to close when there was no water.
He said a steady water supply was one of the most important things that investors looked for before deciding to invest.
Daily Dispatch
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.