Buthongweni Water Scheme OR Tambo Failure: 20 Years, No Water

• The Buthongweni Water Supply Scheme, initiated 20 years ago to serve a dozen villages near Mthatha, Eastern Cape, remains unfinished.
• Residents report at least four contractors have worked on the project since 2007, with each leaving without completing the work, leading to continuous repairs of existing infrastructure.
• The OR Tambo District Municipality attributes delays to contractual issues, lack of Eskom electricity, vandalism, resident employment demands, and damage to the reticulation network during road construction.
• Despite municipal claims of the scheme being operational since November 2025 with a new generator and rationing, villagers report taps that have never produced water and reliance on untreated sources.
• This prolonged failure highlights significant public procurement and project management issues within the OR Tambo District Municipality, raising concerns about the constitutional right to water and potential legal liabilities.

This protracted failure to deliver basic services carries substantial legal and constitutional implications.

For two decades, a critical water project intended to serve thousands of households near Mthatha in the Eastern Cape has remained incomplete, leaving numerous communities without reliable access to water. The Buthongweni Water Supply Scheme was designed to deliver water from the Ngqeleni dam to approximately a dozen villages, including Buthongweni, Mabhetshe, Zingonyameni, Mhlakotshane, Qokama, Sidanda, KwaZulu, Mntsholobeni, Mayalweni, Lushini, and Sikhova. Despite its long history, residents report a persistent cycle of contractors starting work only to abandon the project, leading to widespread disillusionment and continued water scarcity.

Local resident Zamekile Dyubhele recounts a history of at least four different contractors involved in the Buthongweni Water Supply Scheme. The initial contractor departed in late 2007 after installing some pipes and constructing a tank. A second contractor, appointed in 2009, raised hopes by installing taps before also leaving the site. By 2016, a third contractor arrived, reportedly building another large tank but primarily focusing on repairing infrastructure laid by previous companies before their eventual departure. Dyubhele notes the presence of paid guards overseeing machinery at the Ngqeleni dam, questioning the continuous expenditure on a project that consistently fails to deliver.

The pattern of non-completion continued into 2024, when a fourth contractor commenced work. However, according to Dyubhele, this latest effort has shown minimal progress, appearing to repeat the cycle of fixing existing infrastructure rather than advancing the project significantly. This chronic lack of progress underscores the deep-seated Ngqeleni water supply problems and highlights a significant Buthongweni Water Scheme OR Tambo failure, leaving villagers like those in Qokama to collect water from streams, as they have for years.

The OR Tambo District Municipality has acknowledged the challenges plaguing the Buthongweni Water Supply Scheme, attributing delays to a complex array of issues. While the municipality has not disclosed the total expenditure on the scheme since 2006, spokesperson Ncebakazi Kolwane stated that contractual issues initially hampered its full commissioning. A primary obstacle was the absence of an Eskom electricity supply, which prevented the energization of raw water abstraction works and the water treatment plant, leading to the prolonged idleness and subsequent vandalism of infrastructure.

In response, the municipality initiated a refurbishment project in 2009, which included the installation of generators to power water extraction and treatment. Following the completion of this refurbishment, further delays emerged when local residents demanded employment as plant operators and security personnel. The municipality accommodated some of these requests, allowing the scheme to become partially operational. However, the reticulation network later sustained damage during road construction, necessitating repairs in 2016, which the municipality claims restored functionality and enabled water supply.

Despite these efforts, the scheme has faced ongoing operational difficulties. In 2024, the generator failed, leading to recurring breakdowns even after multiple repairs. A new generator was delivered in November 2025, and the municipality asserts the scheme has been operational since then, supplying communities through a rationing schedule to maintain system stability. Nevertheless, Kolwane admitted that parts of the reticulation network continue to experience leakages and plumbing-related faults, which can still delay water supply to certain villages, indicating that full, reliable service remains elusive.

Despite the OR Tambo District Municipality's assertions of partial operation and rationing, the reality on the ground for many residents remains one of dry taps and unfulfilled promises. Chief Mfanelo Mnatule of KwaZulu village starkly illustrates this disconnect, reporting that while taps exist in his area, they have never delivered a single drop of water. He emphasizes that villagers are forced to rely on untreated water sources and challenges the municipality to witness their plight firsthand. Chief Mfanelo Mnatule's experience underscores a critical aspect of the Buthongweni Water Scheme OR Tambo failure: the profound lack of transparency and communication with affected communities.

Chief Mfanelo Mnatule further highlights the community's frustration, stating that since the project's inception in 2006, they have received no water, only witnessing a continuous rotation of contractors. He laments that residents are kept in the dark about the project's status, even as a new contractor is currently engaged in what appears to be more repair work. This situation exemplifies severe South Africa public procurement issues and administrative law risks inherent in municipal infrastructure projects, particularly in the context of Eastern Cape water infrastructure failures. The chronic delays and non-delivery point to significant failures in contractor oversight and project management, raising questions about accountability and the effective use of public funds.

This protracted failure to deliver basic services carries substantial legal and constitutional implications. Access to water is a fundamental human right in South Africa, and the ongoing inability of the Buthongweni Water Supply Scheme to provide consistent, safe water exposes the OR Tambo District Municipality water project to potential litigation risks. Lawyers advising municipalities or contractors on similar projects must scrutinize contractual terms and project governance rigorously to mitigate such chronic delays and non-delivery, ensuring that constitutional rights to water are upheld and that public funds are utilized effectively to avoid similar protracted failures.

This case exemplifies severe public procurement and administrative law risks in South African municipal infrastructure projects, highlighting failures in contractor oversight and project management. Lawyers advising municipalities or contractors should scrutinize contractual terms and project governance to mitigate similar chronic delays and non-delivery, and be aware of potential litigation risks related to constitutional rights to water.

Source: Original reporting via GroundUp