The R26 billion question: where is the uMkhomazi water?
Statement by Thandi Nontenja, MP, UDM Member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts
LISTEN: Ms Nontenja on the subject of the uMkhomazi projects
The United Democratic Movement (UDM) is gravely concerned about the continuing delays and disputes in the Upper and Lower uMkhomazi Water Projects, which have left communities without water despite billions of rands being committed.
The Upper and Lower uMkhomazi Water Projects were meant to secure supply for both inland and coastal communities. The Upper scheme, centred on the Smithfield Dam and transfer tunnel, was designed to boost the uMngeni system and bring long-awaited relief to Durban and surrounding areas. The Lower scheme, with its storage dam and treatment works, was intended to serve southern eThekwini and the Ugu District, benefiting an estimated 50,000 households in towns like Amanzimtoti, Umkomaas, Scottburgh and Hibberdene.
The Upper uMkhomazi scheme was originally projected to be completed in 2018. Instead, it has been dogged by funding shortfalls, procurement disputes and legal wrangles. Its completion date has now been pushed to 2032. This means that communities such as Tafelkop, west of Durban, have lived with dry taps for over 15 years and will wait another generation for what their constitutional right is.
The UDM is disturbed that public money continues to flow, but public benefit does not. Government admitted as far back as 2015 that affordability concerns had stalled the project.
In 2025, a R7 billion tender for the Lower uMkhomazi scheme was interdicted in court over disputes about the adjudication process. These are not small technical glitches — they are signs of systemic weaknesses in financial governance and procurement.
The promises made to resuscitate and fast-track the project, including those by Senzo Mchunu during his tenure as Minister of Water and Sanitation, have not been honoured.
Now the urgent question is what the incumbent Minister, Pemmy Majodina, and Deputy President Paul Mashatile, who oversees infrastructure coordination in the Government of National Unity, are doing to prevent billions more from being wasted while people still fetch water from streams.
It is unacceptable that a R26 billion investment can be committed to schemes that deliver ribbon cuttings, contracts and disputes, but not water. The UDM therefore demands:
1. A full Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) inquiry into the expenditure on the uMkhomazi projects to date, with disclosure of every contract and payment. The UDM will formally write to SCOPA to request that such an inquiry be initiated as a matter of urgency.
2. A halt to further waste until there is assurance that the money is translating into water for households.
3. Quarterly reporting to the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation on progress, costs and delays.
4. Accountability from both current leaders and former ministers who presided over these failures, including appearances before Parliament and referrals to law enforcement where misconduct is proven.
5. Transparency and expedited resolution of procurement disputes that have landed in court, so that communities are not held hostage to years of litigation, with interim measures put in place to ensure access to water in the meantime.
The UDM is serious about infrastructure development as the backbone of service delivery and economic growth. We have long argued for investment in dams and water storage schemes to secure supply for households, agriculture and industry. Projects like the uMkhomazi Water Scheme are urgently needed and should be welcomed, but they must be delivered on time, on budget and free of corruption. South Africans cannot drink blueprints and promises - they need functioning infrastructure that works
Water is life, and public money is sacred. It is SCOPA’s duty to ensure that every rand spent on infrastructure, including water, translates into services that work, not empty promises and endless delays.
