Are corrupt water officials getting away with it?
· Citizen
Parliament’s Water and Sanitation portfolio committee has warned that officials implicated in billions of rands’ worth of water-sector corruption are facing no meaningful consequences.
This comes as the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) face tough questions linked to 41 unresolved cases.
Visit freshyourfeel.com for more information.
A department with a troubled past
The DWS arrived at parliament’s portfolio committee briefing on Tuesday, carrying the weight of years of financial misconduct, with 41 open disciplinary cases and mounting frustration from members of parliament (MPs) on whether anyone was truly being held to account.
Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina did not shy away from the department’s record.
“The department has historically been affected by financial mismanagement, irregular expenditure and weak governance, which have undermined its core mandate of delivering water and sanitation services,” she told the committee.
She was firm, however, that things were changing.
“The ministry has adopted a zero-tolerance stance on fraud and corruption and is committed to restoring the department’s credibility.”
But MPs were not persuaded that the numbers supported her claim.
ALSO READ: Giyani water project still incomplete after 16 years and R4.5bn
Dismissals, warnings and a backlog of 41 cases
Deputy Director-General Nthabiseng Fundakubi presented the department’s disciplinary caseload across three financial years.
As of 24 March 2026, 28 financial misconduct cases and 23 non-financial cases had been finalised. However, 41 remained pending.
Fundakubi noted that the figures were more layered than they appeared.
“That 24 indicates the eight cases that relate to one official. So it means basically we have 16 cases, but also there is one official who also have three cases. So basically, for the entire period, we have 13 cases that we have as a department.”
Sanctions included dismissals, suspensions without pay, and written warnings, with three dismissals recorded in the current financial year alone.
On delays, she acknowledged that circumstances sometimes fell outside the department’s hands.
“Some of the delays are caused by unforeseeable circumstances where postponement will be made [by] the employee or [by] the initiators themselves.”
SIU: Billions at stake, recoveries slow
The SIU reported that 16 proclamations have been issued against the water sector since 2008, with nine completed and seven ongoing.
Cumulative outcomes since 2012 include R592 million in actual cash and assets recovered, R1.1 billion in contracts set aside, R717 million in potential losses prevented, and more than 350 criminal referrals to the NPA.
On the headline “War on Leaks” and “Drop the Block” investigations, the SIU confirmed that recoveries remained limited.
“[So] far, we have only recovered [R]6.1 million, and we are still investigating the bulk of the matters on this proclamation,” the SIU said, adding that an expanded mandate only came through last year.
When pressed on whether implicated officials ever escaped accountability, the SIU stated, “In our investigations, we do not leave anyone off the hook. Even if a person resigns before finalisation of the matter, we still do referrals to the department to alert them that a certain individual committed certain misconduct.”
ALSO READ: Millions lost to water corruption
‘People are getting away with it’
DA MP Stephen Moore criticised the water sector for systemic issues.
“From the presentations, we may be better at identifying cases, but there’s a repeated pattern of weak procurement controls, abuse of emergency processes, contract inflation, poor contract management, inadequate recordkeeping, and slow or uneven consequence management across the water sector,” he said.
He was blunt about what that pattern meant in practice. “People are getting away with it. Let me put it that way. That’s what I see when I read these reports.”
Moore proposed a dedicated workshop, warning that “we cannot have the same reports coming to us every month where people are leaving rather than facing the consequences, being fired but not facing a criminal case when potentially hundreds of millions have been stolen or improperly allocated.”
The acting chair, Stanley Ramaila, supported the call, saying the committee needed “a thorough understanding from the department insofar as the kind of disciplinary measures that are being taken against officials, wherein some appear to be very lenient.”
Calls for specialised courts and NPA accountability
ActionSA’s Malebo Kobe pushed the argument further, insisting the entire justice chain needed scrutiny and not just the department and the SIU.
“It’s very important that we also involve the Department of Justice, or the portfolio committee of justice, just so that we have an understanding of the NPA as it relates to the matters that have been referred,” she said.
She also made the case for specialised corruption courts, arguing that “people end up in overalls, in handcuffs or some sort of accountability that is real and tangible, and that will serve as a deterrent to further corruption in the future.”
Both the department and the SIU were asked to submit written responses covering NPA referral outcomes, the blacklisting status of Blackhead Consulting, linked to Edwin Sodi, and updates on the Fontaine and Dry Pump Station contracts, before the committee’s next sitting.
READ NEXT: What’s really in your water? Damning report highlights how South Africa is failing