By Celani Sikhakhane
- A R60-million reservoir built in 2019 is useless while some villages in Amajuba have gone without water for seven years.
- The municipal manager was suspended after investigating suspicious payments in the water corruption scandal.
A KwaZulu-Natal mayor is waiting for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s team to get to the bottom of how R60 million meant for water was wasted while people go thirsty.
Acting Amajuba District Mayor Thembelihle Mthembu says a water reservoir built in 2019 has never worked properly.
The District Municipality provides water to the Dannhauser, Newcastle, and eMadlangeni (Utrecht) local municipalities in northern KZN.
“Till today, it never worked for our community of Bramfontain. Instead, it is leaking. We are hopeful that the Special Investigating Unit will unearth the truth on how the taxpayers’ money was used, as we suspected that there was a lot of corruption during the construction,” said Mthembu.
The scandal has already claimed its first victim. In August 2023, former mayor Ndabuko Zulu suspended municipal manager Mpumelelo Manqele for alleged corruption, fraud, and misconduct after Manqele started looking into suspicious payments to a contractor.
The water crisis has hit the district hard. Some villages haven’t had water for seven years, while suburbs in Newcastle now go without water for three days each week.
Things are so bad that Newcastle officials have started holding prayer services for rain to fill up local dams.
Mthembu, who visited the broken reservoir, held a water summit on Friday at Newcastle Farmers Hall to discuss the crisis.
He blamed contractors who either didn’t finish their work or didn’t install infrastructure properly, leaving many areas high and dry.
In September 2023, Ramaphosa ordered the SIU to investigate the corrupt deals and try to get back money lost to crooked contracts.
Pictured above: Amajuba District Municipality Acting Mayor Thembelihle Mthembu hopes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s investigation will solve the R60 million water corruption scandal.
Source: Celani Sikhakhane
