Water mafia taking over South Africa

The so-called ‘water mafia’ has grown significantly in South Africa over the past few years, with it disrupting supply and wastewater facilities to gain contracts with municipalities to provide water and other services at inflated prices. 

This has been a problem for some time, with the water mafia first emerging in KwaZulu-Natal in 2024 through the supply of water tankers at inflated prices. 

As other parts of the country experienced water shortages, the mafia stepped in to take the opportunity to expand their operations to Gauteng, in particular. 

The mafia has spread to the extent that it has garnered the attention of President Ramaphosa, who told the National Water and Sanitation Indaba earlier this year that criminal syndicates have infiltrated parts of the water supply in South Africa. 

While the mafia first emerged in the supply of water tankers to communities and municipalities hit by water shortages, it has become far more sophisticated and brazen in recent months. 

The mafia has begun to deliberately disrupt water supply to win contracts with municipalities and has begun branching into wastewater treatment. 

A recent report from the New Lines Institute explained that these mafias have effectively exploited existing forms of corruption within the government. 

It found that, in particular, national-scale projects aimed at improving water infrastructure are vulnerable to corruption and fraud. 

For example, South Africa’s War on Leaks programme launched in 2015 resulted in the government spending around R3 billion on water infrastructure. An investigation into the programme found that 20% of the expenditure was irregular. 

Apart from the corruption within programmes such as these, their failure to improve water supply results in increased demand for private water tankers. 

The government has also failed to adequately prevent vandalism and sabotage of water infrastructure in South Africa. 

Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Isaac Seithlolo, explained that water tankering has become an extremely lucrative business in recent years. 

He pointed specifically to how some municipal officials and politicians were involved in shutting off water valves to create artificial demand for water tankers, which were then supplied at inflated costs. 

In some cases, individuals steal parts that could be used to repair broken infrastructure to extend contracts for water tankers. 

Criminal syndicates also target electrical cables and equipment to ensure that pumping stations cannot function for extended periods of time.

Mafia infiltration

Corruption in the water sector in South Africa goes beyond procurement, with individuals involved in criminal syndicates being heavily connected to government officials. 

Some municipal officials have even disrupted some communities’ access to water in order to broker new agreements with water mafias. Often, these officials pocket a portion of the tender money. 

In some other cases, municipal officials have shared information on planned infrastructure repairs, enabling mafias to damage the infrastructure soon after repairs. 

This is all done with the aim of disrupting the flow of water to local residents, leaving them reliant on tankers for water. 

The mafias are particularly prominent in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, with these provinces experiencing sporadic water outages, on which the mafia thrives. 

In particular, Gauteng, with its three major metros, has seen its water resources come under increasing pressure from population growth and severe delays in the construction of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. 

As a result, the province has become increasingly reliant on water tankers over the past few years, spending over R2 billion on private tanker contracts in the past five years. 

The city of Durban has proven to be particularly vulnerable to exploitation from the water mafia, with rapid urbanisation and failing infrastructure pushing communities to rely on private tankers. 

A GroundUp investigation found that in Adams Mission, a town in eThekwini, nearly every resident interviewed had purchased water sold illegally by tanker mafias. 

Mafias will illegally charge residents up to 15 times the city-set rates. Some estimate that a tanker holding 28,000 litres of water can earn over R1 million in a few days in areas of the province where municipal trucks have not visited.