Broken pipes, broken trust: How corruption and vandalism drain SA’s water system

Prof Anja du Plessis

In a country where access to water is a constitutional right, South Africans are increasingly finding themselves at the mercy of dry taps, leaking and bursting pipes, and failing infrastructure - creating localised water crises. Behind these crises lies a story of growing deliberate sabotage, entrenched corruption, and systemic neglect.

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), in its recent policy brief, paints a grim picture of how “water mafias,” vandalism, and institutional failures have combined to erode the country’s water systems and public trust. While South Africa is a water-scarce country, today’s crises are not only environmental but also largely human-made. Profits are made through the sabotaging of water infrastructure – vandalism, theft – leaving residents high and dry with buckets and containers, while money overflows in theirs.

Water Access Reality

According to the latest statistics, 77.1% of households have access to an improved water source (2024) - down from 80.4% in 2023. For many communities, even this access is unreliable or non-existent for months due to theft, non-functioning infrastructure, and even failure to deliver water tanks. Showing the dire state of water access and actual delivery of water supply within numerous provinces around the country, especially small towns and rural areas.

Many report water outages or interruptions lasting longer than two days. Some in the City of Johannesburg have gone without water for weeks with poor communication regarding the location of stationary or roaming water tankers. For a nation with the infrastructure and resources to do better, this regression is deeply concerning.

Compounding the issue is high water demand and non-revenue water (NRW) - treated water lost to leaks, illegal connections, and poor revenue collection.

Estimates suggest that 40–50% (or more) of water is lost before reaching consumers, a staggering inefficiency for a country already battling droughts, climate unpredictability and high water scarcity.

Sabotage and the rise of the "Water Mafia"

The Presidential Water And Sanitation Indaba and the recent SAHRC’s report highlight a troubling trend – the deliberate destruction and manipulation of water infrastructure by criminal syndicates for disruption and profit. These so-called “water mafias” exploit infrastructure failures for profit. In parts of the Gauteng, syndicates are reportedly closing valves, damaging pipelines and disrupting pump stations – only to resell water through tankers at inflated prices. Residents are forced to pay these informal suppliers while municipal systems remain crippled by the very sabotage that created the demand.

Vulnerable, poor and rural communities bear the brunt of these disruptions, often going days or weeks without safe, potable water. Public health risks are rising, hygiene suffers and frustration mounts.

Health and economic fallout

The effects are not theoretical - they can be deadly. In 2023, a cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal led to at least 20 deaths, traced to contaminated and poorly treated water. In a nation where water infrastructure is failing and poor oversight on municipal level, the chance for such outbreaks become more likely.

Economically, the water crisis undermines productivity, business continuity, and investor confidence. When water is scarce or unpredictable, industry slows, agriculture suffers, and job security weakens. For a developing economy already facing various instabilities, the water crisis adds yet another layer of systemic risk.

Systemic failures and broken accountability

The SAHRC report rightly identifies persistent dysfunction with 105 water service authorities, legally tasked with ensuring affordable, efficient, and sustainable access to basic water and sanitation services. Yet many municipalities’ procurement processes remain vulnerable to manipulation and political interference. Maintenance budgets are often cut or diverted, and few face consequences for project failures.

Sabotage of water systems can be considered as an attack on public safety and human rights, but prosecutions remain low.

A path forward: urgent and possible

While the picture is bleak, it is not beyond repair. The SAHRC outlines several important recommendations that deserve swift and decisive implementation to protect the whole water value chain from mentioned threats:

1. Critical infrastructure should be secured and monitored with real-time technology community-based surveillance programmes.

2. The Department of Water and Sanitation, National Treasury and in collaboration with COGTA are currently in the process of implementing the ring-fencing of revenue collected for water – to ensure that funds collected for water and sanitation services are reinvested into infrastructure.

3. Build municipalities capacity with skilled staff, regular audits, and clear consequence management for non-performance.

4. Protect whistleblowers, and investigate major cases through the Special Investigating Unit and the National Prosecuting Authority.

5. Treat sabotage as organized crime, not petty vandalism, requiring strengthening of inter-agency collaboration.

As in all solutions and/ or strategies to be implemented, civil society has a major roleto play. Continued public pressure, good quality investigative journalism, and legal activism are essential to hold officials and contractors accountable. Greater transparency is needed – for example, particularly around multimillion-rand water tanker tenders.

Communities must be engaged not just as recipients of services, but decrease their own water use and be co-stewards of public infrastructure. Rebuilding this partnership, however, will be difficult in the face of growing mistrust, driven by frequent and prolonged water outages with little warning or explanation.

Restoring trust, drop by drop

South Africa’s water crisis is a reflection of broader governance failures. Broken pipes are seen as broken promises. Infrastructure can be repaired but and legislation amended, but public trust is harder to restore.

Safeguarding water systems is safeguarding the collective future. What is needed now is collective decrease in water demands, practical plans and solutions while considering the level of public trust with transparency, and accountability. Without it, taps may continue to run dry, broken pipes will become fountains and together with high losses not just of water, but of public faith in the institutions meant to serve them.

• Du Plessis is Associate Professor at Unisa and a Water Management Expert