Water supply failures making tanker owners rich

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Joburg residents, ever wondered what the city is spending on water tankers? Try 130 million rand of your money every year.

[00:00:10]Amid complaints of financial mismanagement, the municipality insists it's prioritizing service delivery.

[00:00:17]We are going towards all service delivery items, water, electricity, sanitation, waste management, and so forth. Of course, we do have issues and challenges with regard to road infrastructure and so forth, but our core remains the core.

[00:00:32]Johannesburg city manager Floyd Brink failed to explain what happened to 4 billion rand redirected from Joburg water to the municipality.

[00:00:42]In a city where 48% of water is lost through leaks and illegal connections, Rand Water says municipalities are failing in their duties.

[00:00:53]About 33% of the water that we supplied to municipalities in Gauteng is lost through leaks. 1.5 billion liters of water a day that is lost in the distribution network, and I think that is the biggest challenge.

[00:01:09]Um the biggest challenge is it doesn't matter how much you put into the system, and mine that's my worry. Like we're building more treatment works, but if you're not fixing the leaks in the distribution network, you're going to pressurize the system and the leaks are going to be bigger. And here's where the dots connect. The less reliable the water infrastructure becomes, the more dependent people become on the water tanker system.

[00:01:34]The SAHRC says the crisis has reached disaster levels, and it's considering asking the SIU to investigate possible municipal sabotage and collusion in the tanker system.

[00:01:46]Naomi Kobi, Johannesburg.