Promises, Promises - Taps still dry for 240,000 villagers as six-year-old Giyani water project not yet finalised

The effects of tender irregularities and alleged corruption in the 2014 Giyani water project continue to be felt by people in Mopani district, Limpopo. Hundreds of thousands of residents have been waiting for years for access to water.

The controversial Giyani bulk water project, which was supposed to be completed in 2017, has been plagued by controversy and failure despite an estimated R4-billion in public funds spent on it.

Allegations of corruption and tender irregularities emerged when then Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane was accused of trying to influence Lepelle Northern Water board executives to appoint LTE Consulting for the project.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) instituted a liability claim against three Lepelle Northern Water board executives — Phineas Legodi, Carel Schmahl and Johann Christian Kilian – for a R1.9-billion loss suffered by the Department of Water and Sanitation as a result of the tender irregularities involved in the Giyani project. Last year, the trio approached the Special Tribunal challenging the liability claims.

In May this year, Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu promised that the Giyani project will be completed in September.

“We are here to assure you that by September this year, there will be water available in your villages,” Mchunu told the community before admitting, “I must say that the Giyani water project has been an embarrassment to both the Department of Water and Sanitation and to government as a whole, but we are determined to make sure this project brings water here in Giyani and the reticulation should also be to your households.”

Mopani District Municipality had a population of 1.1 million in the 2011 Census. It provides water for five local municipalities: Ba-Phalaborwa, Greater Giyani, Greater Letaba, Greater Tzaneen and Maruleng.

We visited a number of villages in the district, including Lekgwareng, Madibeng, Mpepule, Moohokoni, Ga-Abele, Ga-Ratšeke and Mahekgwe, where accessing water remains a serious challenge for residents.

In the 2011 Census, less than 1% of households in Ga-Abele village had access to water in their yards. We found villagers are still lining up 20-litre containers at the communal standpipe in 2022. They said sometimes the tap runs dry for three weeks. They said most people have to buy water from people with boreholes at R5 for 20-litres.

Residents of Mahenkgwe and Mpepule are connected to the municipality’s water reticulation system but say many taps have been dry for over two years.

In the Greater Giyani villages, over 55 villages with a population of more than 240,000 people still do not have water at standpipes on their streets or the taps in their homes. Those who do, about 12,000 households, have unreliable communal street taps and often have to buy water.

The tanks at Ga-Ratseke Primary School. The principal say they regularly spends R900 to fill one tank with water. It lasts a week. (Photo: Ezekiel Kekana)