Deputy minister of human settlements David Mahlobo. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The deputy minister of water and sanitation has labelled as “economic sabotage” killings countrywide that are thought to be related to water tenders.
David Mahlobo was speaking to journalists during a press briefing at this week’s ANC Lekgotla when he made the statements, which come in the wake of the murders of Rand Water executive Teboho Joala and his bodyguard, who were shot during a back-to-school event in Zakariyya Park, south of Johannesburg, on Monday. Both men died of their injuries.
Since 2022, South Africa’s water authorities, and water and sanitation units at local levels, have experienced the murders of officials or rank-and-file employees, with eThekwini metro having been particularly affected by killings, vandalism and theft of infrastructure.
Mahlobo said one of the ways to curb the killings was “being very hard” on employees in the infrastructure environment, where tussles over tenders were known to take place. Options available to the government included vetting and lifestyle audits of employees who appeared to live beyond their means.
Without going into specifics, Mahlobo said that some employees had turned down promotions, ostensibly so that they could continue manipulating tenders or vandalising infrastructure, which would then necessitate repairs and tenders,
Mahlobo said it was too early to tell whether the murders of Joala and his bodyguard were linked to other killings of department employees, or those at a local level of water provision and maintenance.
In November, then acting deputy head of eThekwini water and sanitation Mthunzi Gumede resigned, saying the job was not worth his life.
This was just three days after the acting senior manager for plants and logistics in eThekwini’s water and sanitation unit, Emmanuel Ntuli, was shot dead at his home.
Ntuli had been assigned bodyguards because of repeated threats to his life, but had left them behind on the day he was killed
In September, Khumbulani Khumalo, eThekwini’s manager for community services in the water and sanitation unit, was shot dead inside a municipal vehicle while in Inanda.
In February, Nkosinathi Amos Ngcobo, a superintendent for eThekwini’s water and sanitation unit, was shot dead inside his office in the municipal building in the popular Springfield Park precinct.
In 2022, at least four employees working in eThekwini’s water and sanitation were killed.
“We know now that in eThekwini we have lost several people who work in water and in certain water boards, people have been killed. We have lost people and our condolences go to the families,” said Mahlobo.
Referring to the country’s mafia-like “business forums”, Mahlobo said: “In certain areas our projects are being stopped because certain people claim to be business people, they just come in and demand from each contractor a certain quantum of money.”
He said that attacks on infrastructure and vandalism, as well as other criminal acts including the most recent killings, was not only affecting the department and its mandate but also the economy.
“Our water sector is not an exception [when it comes to criminal acts] and you can see it is on the rise. It is sabotage; it’s an economic sabotage and a counter-revolution, it can not be called a progressive way of doing business.”
At the same briefing Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Sihle Zikalala said his department was pushing the treasury to blacklist the two companies responsible for erecting the controversial Beitbridge border fence from doing government work.
The 40km fence cost taxpayers R40 million in 2020, but most of it has been vandalised or stolen.
In March, during an oversight visit to the border, Zikalala said the border fence, which was erected under his predecessor — the now Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille — was a “disaster” and those who were given government tenders to erect it should be held to account.
The border fence was deemed unfit for purpose and there was wasteful expenditure during its construction.
Investigations found that the government paid R17 million more than the market-related cost for the fence.
“The issue of Beitbridge has been our mandate. We are grateful that the court has vindicated us that the two service providers who did that work should pay back some of the money that they got,” Zikalala said at the briefing.
He said the government would not tolerate shoddy work.
Recently, the Patriotic Alliance camped at the Limpopo River banks to stop immigrants from attempting to cross the river to South Africa illegally.
The party claimed that there were no South African National Defence Force or Border Management Authority personnel patrolling the area to deter those who were attempting to cross the river into the country.
Zikalala said that the home affairs department and the Border Management Authority were involved in public-private partnerships in at least six problematic areas to quell illegal crossings and tighten South Africa’s porous borders.