Mpumalanga breakdown â when emergency water becomes the permanent supply

This story has significance for readers across Africa and beyond.

In Mpumalangaâs Nkangala District, the Lynnville office water depot in Emalahleni and the Vezubuhle Gundry Water supply in Thembisile Hani are meant to supply communities with piped water. But recurring drought, ageing infrastructure and water sources that have failed to meet demand have left many communities dependent on erratic tanker deliveries originally intended only as an emergency measure.

This investigation found that Nkangala municipalities have become locked into a costly tanker system that has evolved from an emergency response into a long-term substitute for functioning infrastructure.

In parts of Emalahleni and Thembisile Hani municipalities, residents describe years of unreliable tanker deliveries, empty JoJo tanks and long periods without running water, despite millions of rands spent on emergency water provision.

Municipal records show that Emalahleni Local Municipality spent about R46-million on water tanker services in a single year, while neighbouring Thembisile Hani spent more than R21-million over four financial years.

Despite this public expenditure, residents have little certainty about when water will arrive, whether it will be free or come at a cost, and little public accountability for how millions of rands spent on tanker services translate into reliable access to water.

Erratic delivery has opened the way for independent private providers to step in, charging even more for water delivery.

The private companies contracted by the municipality sometimes require payment in cash to the driver, raising suspicions that this money never gets to the municipality.

The investigation also found that some of the companies delivering water are owned by relatives of influential local politicians, suggesting a conflict of interest.

Living with a permanent emergency

Across Nkangala, residents describe profound frustration with inconsistent and often unreliable water tanker services that affect almost every aspect of daily life. Communities, particularly in Emalahleni and Thembisile Hani, have grown dependent on JoJo tanks, yet frequently endure weeks without refills, forcing them to resort to unsafe alternative water sources.

Frans Duma, a resident of Waaikraal, says residents have raised serious concerns about how payments for municipal water tanker deliveries are being handled.

âAs members of the Waaikraal community, we rely on municipal water tankers, and while I understand and accept that people may have to pay for water, the problem is that payments are made directly to the driver instead of through official municipal channels. There is no assurance that the money is reaching the municipality,â says Duma.

âResidents with JoJo tanks in their yards are charged R450 for a 5,000-litre delivery, while water from the communal JoJo tanks is free. For households like mine, where both my mother and I are unemployed, this is a significant expense.â Duma says that earlier this year, there was an attempt to increase the price, and he had to plead for the increase not to be implemented because many families have no source of income.

Duma wants the municipality to introduce a transparent payment system.

âIf payments were properly managed through the municipality, costs would be more transparent and there would be greater accountability. This situation places an unfair burden on vulnerable households and it calls for urgent intervention to ensure fairness and proper governance in water distribution within our community.â

A Waaikraal community member, who wished to stay anonymous, says he hasnât received any water for about two to three months and that other residents have gone for more than eight months without receiving any water. âWe have been left to fend for ourselves,â she says. âWhen people become desperate, they end up paying cash to the municipal water truck driver, whom we know as Sabza.â Sabza charges R300 to deliver a 2,500-litre load of water.

âWater is a basic service, yet we are forced to pay for something that should be provided by the municipalityâ, she says. Many families cannot afford these payments, and those who canât are left without water.

Sebenzile Mnguni from Siyanqoba in Emalahleni Local Municipality describes how her community has had to rely on JoJo tanks since 2018. âWe can go weeks without refills, forcing residents to collect water from streams,ââ she says.

Mnguni says she has seen some tanker drivers collecting water from unsafe sources, posing serious health risks. A visit to the Siyanqoba community confirmed that a private water tanker was being filled from a nearby dam.

âI have lived in Siyanqoba since 2018, and throughout that time we have struggled with water every single day,â says Bennett Mdluli. âWhen there is no water, we are forced to fetch it from the river, where people are washing clothes and carrying out other activities.

Mdluli says the Jojo tanks are often empty and refilled only once a week. One 5,000-litre tank is expected to supply an entire street of about 50 households, which is simply not enough, meaning residents canât even flush their toilets. When the water tanker eventually arrives, all rush to collect water, he says, but it is often yellow and has an unusual taste. âOur struggle is severe, and we need a lasting solution.â

Patricia Zwane from Moloto in Thembisile Hani says her community gets tap water only once a week, after which tanker deliveries take over. This raises concerns about whether water is being shared fairly and why such limits exist. For residents, it means living with constant uncertainty, never knowing when water will come, and facing extra struggles in their daily lives. The system leaves people vulnerable and makes it easy for exploitation to creep in.

Taken together, these accounts describe more than isolated service failures. They show how a system introduced as an emergency response has become part of everyday life for many communities.

That raises the question of why, when municipalities that have spent tens of millions of rands on water tanker operations have residents still reporting empty JoJo tanks, erratic deliveries and long periods without water. More importantly, where has the money gone?

Follow the money

An analysis of municipal expenditure shows sharp disparities in water tanker procurement across Nkangala. Emalahleni Local Municipality spent about R46-million in a single year under Bid ELM 17/2023, appointing 47 companies for services between 2024 and 2027. Thembisile Hani Local Municipality spent R21-million over four financial years, involving at least 34 companies.

The dominance of water tankers reflects the failures of the piped water system. Ageing infrastructure, drought conditions and poor maintenance have left many communities without reliable tap water. Instead of repairing the system, municipalities have entrenched tanker operations as the default solution. What began as an emergency response has become permanent, with residents suffering expensive, irregular and unclear service delivery.

Financial analysis shows that Emalahleni spent an estimated R3.83-million a month on water tanker operations, compared with about R437,500 a month in Thembisile Hani over the same period.

Although the two municipalities serve similar populations â about 455,000 people in Emalahleni and 431,000 in Thembisile Hani â Emalahleniâs monthly expenditure was more than eight times higher. The gap raises questions about the condition of Emalahleniâs piped water system and whether procurement practices have entrenched a costly dependence on tankers.

The disparity is stark on a per-resident basis. Our calculations show Emalahleni spent about R101 per resident on tanker services in a single year. Thembisile Hani spent about R49 per resident over four years â roughly R12 per resident each year. The figures point to a more deeply entrenched reliance on tanker water in Emalahleni.

The Nkangala findings are consistent with broader national concerns. Johannesburg Water spent R130.5-million on tanker services in 2024/25, and the Gauteng high court later declared a R263-million tanker tender invalid because of procurement irregularities. The cases illustrate how prolonged reliance on tanker procurement can increase corruption risks while diverting resources from repairing piped water infrastructure.

The spending disparity is also reflected in contractor allocations. Emalahleni averaged about R81,500 per contractor per month, compared with about R12,900 in Thembisile Hani. The financial records show that municipalities have committed substantial resources to emergency water provision. But they do not explain how suppliers were selected, whether procurement processes were consistently followed, or why emergency water provision has become such an enduring feature of service delivery.

With municipalities providing few answers, the investigation turned to the companies behind the contracts. We compared municipal supplier lists with Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) records to see whether the companies could be verified.

Procurement and supplier integrity

CIPC checks found discrepancies in 32 of the 47 companies Emalahleni appointed, including inactive registrations, naming inconsistencies and companies that could not be matched to the municipal records.

The records also showed uneven contractor allocation patterns, with some companies receiving multiple allocations while others appeared inactive or unused. While these findings point to weaknesses in supplier verification and procurement oversight, the investigation found no documentary evidence that contracts were awarded unlawfully or that political interference influenced procurement decisions.

Experts at the University of Pretoriaâs Centre for Human Rights say Nkangalaâs experience illustrates the wider risks of relying on emergency procurement to deliver basic services.

Olayinka Adeniyi and Ebenezer Durojaye at the centre argue that Nkangalaâs reliance on water tankers is a systemic governance failure with human rights implications. Drawing on similar cases, they stress that this âseems to involve a combination of infrastructure failure, weak planning, procurement risk, governance gaps â and thus human rights concerns â and in particular a violation of socioeconomic rightsâ.

Tankers are defensible in emergencies, they say, but their entrenchment as the default mode of supply signals a deeper breach of constitutional guarantees.

Several interviewees raised concerns about political influence and potential conflicts of interest in procurement, though no documentary evidence was available.

Whistleblower

A senior municipal insider with first-hand knowledge of infrastructure projects in Emalahleni, who requested anonymity for fear of victimisation, alleges that Municipal Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Technical Services Thabang Mathebula plays a significant role in project allocation and maintains close relationships with contractors involved in infrastructure delivery.

The whistleblower further alleges that individuals involved in project implementation and community liaison have close personal and residential ties to officials responsible for technical services oversight.

The source also claims that several contractors working on the Hlalanikahle Bulk Water Project and the Doornpoort pipeline project, including one linked to the MMCâs brother, regularly fund community activities and local events. While these contributions are presented as corporate social responsibility, the whistleblower says they also help cultivate political goodwill and strengthen the contractorsâ influence over municipal project allocations.

The investigation also identified companies owned by relatives of prominent political figures within the broader procurement environment. These include Mamolato Construction, owned by Sophie Sibanyoni, the ex-wife of former Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC), chairperson Obet Skhosana, and another company owned by Poppy Mahlangu, the spouse of ANC regional secretary Sello Matshoga.

These relationships raise questions about potential conflicts of interest. When contacted for comment, ANC regional secretary Sello Matshoga maintained that his wife Poppy Mahlangu operated her business independently and without his involvement. Former MPAC chairperson Obet Skhosana could not be reached for comment, and Sophie Sibanyoni did not respond to inquiries. Similarly, MMC Thabang Mathebula failed to respond to detailed questions regarding his alleged role in project allocation and the contracts linked to his brother.

Municipal vs independent suppliers

Recurring droughts and declining local water sources have left municipal systems unable to meet demand. In many areas, boreholes and reservoirs have either run dry or cannot supply enough water, forcing municipalities to rely on tanker deliveries as a substitute for piped supply.

This has created space for private suppliers to step in. Unlike municipal tanker operations, which are funded through public contracts, companies such as DES Emergency Water Supplies operate on transparent commercial rates, charging households directly for deliveries.

DES Emergency Water Supplies charges about R500 for a 2,000-litre delivery, roughly 25 cents per litre. By comparison, ordinary municipal tap water in Victor Khanye Local Municipality costs about R5 to R6 per kilolitre, or less than one cent per litre. The comparison shows how prolonged reliance on tanker deliveries shifts the cost burden on to households, forcing residents to pay many times more for water than they would through a functioning municipal system.

Gert Oosthuizen of DES Emergency Water Supplies says these are fuel, transport, labour and logistics charges â not for the water itself.

Private suppliers publish what they charge. In contrast, residents and whistleblowers say some municipal tanker drivers collect cash directly from households outside the municipalityâs billing and accounting systems.

Accountability in question

One of the biggest obstacles the investigation encountered was the municipalitiesâ lack of transparency. To understand how millions of rands had been spent on water tanker contracts, we submitted Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) requests to Emalahleni, Thembisile Hani and Victor Khanye municipalities in February 2026.

The requests sought contracts, invoices, procurement records, payment schedules and supplier appointment documents. Thembisile Hani and Victor Khanye acknowledged receipt, but provided no substantive response. Emalahleni did not acknowledge the request at all.

We followed up repeatedly by telephone, email, WhatsApp and in person between March and June 2026. Despite these efforts, none of the municipalities provided the requested records or meaningful responses.

What millions of rands bought

Millions have been spent, an emergency water supply system has become entrenched, and accountability remains incomplete.

The silence from the Nkangala municipalities over these multimillion-rand contracts reflects the very governance weaknesses the National Water Action Plan seeks to address. If that plan is to succeed, it will first have to assess and repair ageing infrastructure. It will also have to ensure that emergency measures do not become a long-term substitute for reliable municipal water services.

The National Water Action Plan recognises that emergency measures cannot become permanent. In Nkangala, they already have. The challenge now is whether the plan can reverse that reality. DM

This report was produced with the support of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation, which supports and enables investigative journalism.

Reporting originally appeared via Daily Maverick. Read the full source for additional context.