Residents of villages near Ngqeleni in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province say that the Buthongweni Water Supply Scheme, launched about 20 years ago, still does not provide them with reliable access to water. The project was intended to supply water to thousands of households in about 12 villages, including Buthongweni, Mabhetshe, Zingonyameni, Kokama, Sidandi and KwaZulu.
As Daily Maverick reports, residents say that at least four contractors have changed at the site during this time. According to resident Zamekile Dubhele, the first of them left the site at the end of 2007 after laying some of the pipes and building a reservoir. Water was to be drawn from the Ngqeleni Dam.
Changes of contractors and dry taps
A second contractor was appointed in 2009; it installed taps but also stopped work. Another contractor arrived in 2016 and built a large reservoir, but, according to Dubhele, mainly repaired pipes laid by its predecessors. A fourth contractor began work in 2024, but residents saw no significant progress.
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Mfanelo Mnatule from the village of KwaZulu said that taps in his area had never supplied water. Residents use untreated water and, he said, share it with animals; some people have bought water containers. GroundUp journalists, whose report was published by Daily Maverick, visited Kokama, Mabhetshe and Sizindeni and saw dry taps there.
The municipality’s position
The OR Tambo District Municipality did not disclose how much money had been spent on the scheme since 2006. Municipal spokesperson Nchebakazi Kolwane explained the delays by contractual problems and the lack of electricity supply from Eskom for the water intake facilities and water treatment plant. According to her, vandals damaged the infrastructure during the prolonged downtime, and restoration work began in 2009, when generators were installed.
Kolwane also stated that the network was damaged during road construction and that the pipes were repaired in 2016. In 2024, a generator broke down and continued to fail after several repairs. A new generator was delivered in November 2025. According to the municipality, the system has been operating since then, and water is supplied on a schedule to maintain its stable operation. At the same time, leaks and faults in certain sections of the network may delay water delivery to some villages.
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