Deeply concerned Chris Hani district municipality bosses say the council was spending millions of rand each year on fixing damaged or replacing stolen water infrastructure and have sent an SOS to its communities to help fight criminals hellbent on destroying public infrastructure meant to improve the lives of ordinary people.
The municipality has reportedly already spent around R9m on repairing damaged infrastructure since January 2026.
“Through the trackable patterns and repeatable nature of these incidents, the municipality can confirm that this has been a syndicate. A syndicate of stealing cables, solar panels, diesel engines and other mechanical and electrical components,” district municipal spokesperson Dr Sandiso Tyembile said.
“While the municipality is busy trying to strengthen its internal security, on the other hand we are engaging with the police and community/residents police forums to deal strictly with diesel engines and cable theft. However, at the end of the day communities have a big role to play and stop this scourge of vandalism and theft, identify suspects that are known within the community. The municipality also continues to conduct awareness campaigns in our communities.”
Tyembile’s clarion call to communities comes just days after a house pump connected to an old wastewater treatment works plant in the town of Khowa was found vandalised. He said the situation had left the district authority to deal with mounting sewage blockages and sewer spills in the CBD of the town and a nearby residential township.
This was the second time the facility had been hit by criminals since March.
“Through the daily routine monitoring of our water and sanitation properties, the municipality had picked the incident that took place on March 24 and then again on May 10,” he said.
“In the first incident, cables were stolen and the property was devastatingly damaged costing the municipality around R350,000 to R450,000. [In the second case of] vandalism, the pump was damaged, electrical panel and kiosk with cables were stolen, costing the municipality R250,000. We urge the communities to work with us and also look after service delivery infrastructure.”
The district municipality’s technical teams were currently on the ground and working tirelessly to mitigate the situation in Khowa while ensuring the residents live in a clean and healthy environment.
He said a service provider and municipal technical teams were also still attending to the damages caused during the first incident. Investigations and the assessment of damages were properly conducted. The municipality has now put measures in place to ensure services are delivered to the affected areas.
At Sakhisizwe local municipality in Khowa, there is a notable stealing of cables and electrical components while in Inxuba Yethemba local municipality in Middelburg, the thieves are destroying and stealing everything
— Dr Sandiso Tyembile, district municipal spokesperson
He confirmed the municipality had already spent around R9m on repairs in the past five months while repair costs to damaged infrastructure stood at between R35m and R45m in the last two years, mainly due to theft and vandalism.
“We have numerous hot spots but we can mention the areas of Dr AB Xuma local municipality in Ngcobo, where they are specialising with stealing of diesel engines from our water schemes.
“At Sakhisizwe local municipality in Khowa, there is a notable stealing of cables and electrical components while in Inxuba Yethemba local municipality in Middelburg, the thieves are destroying and stealing everything.”
He said the situation posed a serious threat to both the overall performance of water and sanitation infrastructure and service delivery in general.
It also added severe strain to the water supply networks responsible for delivering clean potable water to communities in some parts of the district, which was obtained from underground sources.
Tyembile said the costs of repairs and maintenance had rapidly increased as the Komani-based council continued implementing intervention measures with every occurrence.
He implored communities to work with municipality by reporting vandalism and theft to the nearest police station or contact 0800-100-100.
In 2025, the municipality revealed it had spent around R10m on repairing several damaged water schemes in Ngcobo and other areas.
Another hard-hit council, the OR Tambo district council meanwhile revealed it had spent more than R200m on repairing and replacing vandalised and stolen water infrastructure in its five local municipalities in the last two years after hundreds of water schemes were damaged.
Meanwhile Eastern Cape Chamber of Business president Vuyisile Ntlabati has previously urged municipalities to invest heavily in security technologies to help stop criminals dead in their tracks.
Daily Dispatch
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