South Africa

Tanker mafia causing chaos in South Africa 

The water tanker mafia in South Africa appears to be spreading, boosted by sporadic water shortages across the country, particularly in Gauteng.

South Africa’s water infrastructure has been steadily deteriorating over the past decade as municipalities have neglected maintenance and have not expanded their supply systems to cope with a growing population. 

This has resulted in a situation where the country has enough water but cannot get it to the end user, as much of it is lost to leakages on the way. 

South Africa has more than enough water to supply its growing population. The issue is getting the water from dams and reservoirs to the end user. 

Several provinces in the country report water losses exceeding 50%. This means that over half of the water from bulk suppliers, such as Rand Water, does not reach the end user. 

Thus, the issue is not a lack of water but rather a failure to provide adequate infrastructure to transport the water from dams to the end user. 

While this is mainly due to the lack of maintenance, other factors contribute to this problem. 

Chief among these is vandalism and theft of infrastructure. In particular, electrical cables and equipment are often stolen, resulting in pumping stations being unable to pump water to the end user. 

These are deliberate acts to disrupt the supply of water and increase the need for water tankers in affected areas. 

While this mafia has been prevalent in KwaZulu Natal for over a year, offshoots are starting to spring up in the economic hub of Gauteng, which has been plagued by water shortages. 

The use of water tankers in Gauteng has skyrocketed as increased demand for water and deteriorating infrastructure have seen multiple areas go weeks without the precious resource. 

Water scientist Dr Anthony Turton said these individuals are exploiting the crisis of local governance to win and prolong contracts to supply water tankers. 

“There is a thriving tanker mafia in KZN that actively sabotages the water infrastructure. They do this to continue and prolong their contracts with the municipalities to provide water tankers across communities that need water,” Turton said.

He added that these tanker suppliers do not source their water from safe, potable sources. Instead, they take unsafe water from dams or rivers as they are paid per tanker. 

“These elements thrive on chaos, and they need to be investigated with urgency.” 

Turton said this mafia is now embedded in local municipalities in areas with water shortages and that other vested interests benefit from disrupting users’ water supplies. 

“It is well-known across South Africa that the tanker mafias are very well entrenched.”

“But, realistically, there are many vested interests in disrupting the system that may serve the interests of certain entities but not the national interest.”

Anthony Turton, professor at the University of the Free State

One of the areas hardest hit by this new mafia has been the Tshwane municipality, which has begun working with the police to protect its infrastructure. 

Themba Fosi, the former head of utilities, regional operations, and coordination for Tshwane, said the municipality spends around R98 million on water tankers annually. 

“The water tanker mafia is being felt across the city, particularly in Bronkhorstspruit where, in several instances, we found our valves being tampered with,” he said. 

“There is a huge amount of vandalism, and you see this is manmade and not due to infrastructure failure. Eventually, this leads to water tankers being the order of the day.” 

“We have instances where invoices from water tankers are questionable. This tends to be a challenge for us because, in some instances, documents are falsified.”

Fosi explained that there were numerous instances across Tshwane where water pipes and valves had been tampered with or broken. 

“These are the things we have found out as the city and the Tshwane metro police department. We also receive tip-offs from the community that they have seen some water tanker guys doing some shady work at our reservoirs or fire hydrants.” 

“That’s information that is coming through. However, we don’t have the capacity to conduct an intense investigation. We rely heavily on the police when cases are lodged through them so that they can conduct investigations for us.” 

Turton has previously warned that acts of sabotage on water infrastructure are often a precursor to widespread social unrest. 

“What we do know is during the 2021 looting in KZN, the precursor to that was tampering with valves and infrastructure. In fact, they destroyed valves in some municipalities,” he said.

“We have seen in recent unrest in Durban that there have been videos of activists damaging water valves and infrastructure.”

“This could well be a part of a trend, and it is important we get on top of this. This has the potential to be a national security concern.”

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