OR Tambo Municipality: Buthongweni Water Scheme Stalls 20 Years On

• The Buthongweni Water Supply Scheme, initiated 20 years ago to serve a dozen Eastern Cape villages, remains largely non-functional despite significant investment.
• Residents report at least four contractors have worked on the project since 2007, with little lasting progress and perceived financial waste by the OR Tambo District Municipality.
• The municipality attributes delays to contractual issues, lack of electricity, vandalism, community employment demands, and infrastructure damage from road construction.
• Despite recent repairs and a new generator delivered in November 2025, the scheme operates on a rationing schedule and still experiences leakages, leaving many villagers without reliable water.
• The OR Tambo District Municipality has not disclosed the total expenditure on the project since 2006, raising concerns about public accountability for this long-standing Eastern Cape water project failure.

This protracted failure of the Buthongweni Water Scheme OR Tambo Municipality exemplifies significant public procurement and municipal service delivery failures, potentially exposing the local authority to legal challenges regarding contractual breaches, administrative negligence, or non-compliance with service delivery mandates.

The Buthongweni Water Supply Scheme, an initiative launched two decades ago to provide potable water to thousands of households across approximately a dozen villages near Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, remains largely incomplete and non-operational. Intended to draw water from the Ngqeleni dam, the project has been plagued by persistent setbacks, leaving communities such as Buthongweni, Mabhetshe, Zingonyameni, and KwaZulu without reliable access to water.

Local residents have witnessed a revolving door of at least four different contractors attempting to advance the project over the years. According to Zamekile Dyubhele, a resident, the initial contractor departed in late 2007 after installing some pipes and constructing a tank. A second contractor, appointed in 2009, installed taps, briefly raising community hopes before also leaving the site. A third firm arrived in 2016, building another large tank but reportedly spending most of its time rectifying infrastructure laid by previous companies before its own departure.

The pattern of stalled progress continued into 2024, when a fourth contractor commenced work. Dyubhele noted that this latest contractor appears to be repeating the cycle of fixing existing infrastructure rather than making substantial new advancements. Residents express frustration over what they perceive as continuous expenditure by the OR Tambo District Municipality on a project that consistently fails to deliver, highlighting the presence of guards at the Ngqeleni dam as an example of ongoing costs without corresponding benefits for the community.

The OR Tambo District Municipality, through spokesperson Ncebakazi Kolwane, has offered explanations for the prolonged delays and failures of the Buthongweni Water Scheme. Kolwane stated that the project was initially hampered by contractual issues and could not be fully commissioned due to the absence of an electricity supply from Eskom, which was necessary to power the raw water abstraction works and the water treatment plant. This lack of power rendered the infrastructure idle for an extended period, leading to its subsequent vandalism.

In response, the municipality initiated a refurbishment project in 2009, which included the installation of generators to facilitate water extraction and treatment. While this refurbishment was completed, further delays arose when local residents demanded employment as plant operators and security personnel. The municipality accommodated some of these requests, allowing for the partial operation of the Buthongweni Water Scheme. However, new problems emerged when the reticulation network suffered damage during road construction activities.

Kolwane reported that the municipality undertook repairs to the damaged pipes in 2016, which restored the scheme's functionality and enabled water supply. Despite these efforts, the generator failed in 2024, leading to multiple repair attempts and recurring breakdowns. A new generator was eventually delivered in November 2025, and the municipality asserts that the scheme has been operational since then, supplying communities through a rationing schedule to maintain system stability. Nevertheless, Kolwane acknowledged that parts of the reticulation network continue to experience leakages and plumbing-related faults, which can still cause delays in water delivery to specific villages.

Despite the OR Tambo District Municipality's assertions of partial operation, the reality on the ground for many villagers remains dire. Chief Mfanelo Mnatule of KwaZulu village highlighted that while taps exist in his community, they have never yielded a single drop of water. Consequently, residents are forced to rely on untreated water sources, posing significant health risks and underscoring the severe impact of the Ngqeleni water supply delays on daily life. Chief Mfanelo Mnatule challenged the municipality to visit the affected villages, emphasizing that since the project's inception in 2006, his community has received no water, only witnessing a succession of contractors and remaining uninformed about the project's status.

This protracted failure of the Buthongweni Water Scheme OR Tambo Municipality exemplifies significant public procurement and municipal service delivery failures, potentially exposing the local authority to legal challenges regarding contractual breaches, administrative negligence, or non-compliance with service delivery mandates. The municipality's refusal to disclose the total amount spent on the scheme since 2006 further exacerbates concerns about transparency and accountability. The ongoing issues, from contractual disputes and infrastructure damage to generator failures and persistent leakages, paint a clear picture of a project that has consistently failed to meet its objectives, leaving thousands without essential services. This situation highlights a critical need for improved oversight in South Africa municipal service delivery and infrastructure projects.

This case exemplifies significant public procurement and municipal service delivery failures, potentially exposing the OR Tambo District Municipality to legal challenges regarding contractual breaches, administrative negligence, or non-compliance with service delivery mandates. Lawyers should monitor such long-standing project failures for precedents in public accountability litigation or to advise clients on risks in municipal infrastructure contracts.

Source: Original reporting via GroundUp