25 August 2025
Lidisa Mametja, 60, fetches water in a stream. Cattle drink from the same spot. Photo: Bernard Chiguvare
Villagers near the Kruger National Park are having to share water with cattle while a R1.1-billion water project launched almost 20 years ago is stalled.
Twenty‑eight villages in Maruleng Municipality, within the Mopani District Municipality (MDM), have lived without potable water for over 27 years, waiting for the R1.1-billion Mametja‑Sekororo Bulk Water Project, launched in 2007, to be completed. The Department of Water and Sanitation now says the villages will all receive water from 2027.
Meanwhile villagers in Sekororo, Oak, Mametja, Santeng, Molalane, London, Botshwana and Sedawa, among others, have to pipe in their own water from mountain streams, fetch water from streams or rely on inconsistent deliveries by water tankers.
Initially the project was funded through the Municipal Infrastructure Grant and implemented by the MDM. In the 2010/2011 financial year the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) co-funded the project through its Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant.
Wisane Mabasa, DWS spokesperson, confirmed that the project had been delayed due to poor performance of the engineer.
MDM terminated the engineer’s contract.
But according to the Auditor‑General (AG) 2016 report the Mametja‑Sekororo regional water‑supply scheme was launched in 2007/2008. However, the licence for getting water from the Blyde River was only applied for in 2014. This late application was “due to lack of proper planning and coordination” between the DWS and MDM, which is the Water Service Authority, the AG says.
The AG also notes that MDM delayed payment to the contractor by more than 60 days, leading to the suspension of the project.
The MDM said the project had faced funding challenges. “The project is implemented in a phased approach, guided by the availability of budget. The current total budget requirement … is about R1.1-billion to complete the project. However, we are receiving on average around R30-million per year for the project, with R35-million budgeted for the 2025/26 financial year… If we continue with this funding model, completing the scheme to ensure sustainable water provision to all 28 villages would take much longer, and that of course is undesirable,” said Odas Ngobeni, MDM spokesperson.
According to Ngobeni, the MDM is busy lobbying for funding.
Mabasa from the DWS told GroundUp that In 2017 the MDM had appointed another engineer to resume with the project, restructuring it in two phases. The full project involves constructing a 15-million-litre-per-day water treatment works. Phase 1 will complete part of this water treatment works, as well as piping and pump stations, in order to supply 7.5-million litres of water a day to 16 of the 28 villages. This is 98% complete, said Mabasa, and Phase 2 is expected to start this year. This includes construction and upgrading of pipelines and reservoirs to extend supply to 16 villages.
The project will be implemented over several years depending on funding.
Mabasa said the DWS would conduct oversight visits to ensure that the projects are within time and budget, and that there are plans to deal with delays. In addition the DWS would monitor progress and collect evidence before funding is confirmed and transferred to MDM.
GroundUp visited the area last week. The water treatment plant in Oak village, along the R36 road, is concrete-fenced but there is overgrown grass. Security guards are present. A couple of hundred metres west is a reservoir, its fence completely vandalised. Overgrown bushes surround it, and it has become a cattle‑grazing area, with cow droppings everywhere. Empty paint buckets have been dumped on the site.
Asked about this, Ngobeni said the reservoir at the Oaks village is fenced, and he was not aware of any vandalism.
“There is water in the reservoir, but it is not going anywhere,” said Reckson Mogofe, a community leader, as he walked GroundUp around the site.
Some villages used to receive piped water from communal taps, but no one recalls when they last did. Currently, residents either purchase water, travel several kilometres to fetch it from streams originating in the mountains, or take it directly from mountain springs which some say is expensive. “I used almost R40,000 to buy the pipes to capture water from the mountain to my homestead,” said Patrick Selgobela, another community leader in Sekororo, whose home lies along the R36.
Sekgobela and Mogofe are not sure why the project is taking so long to be completed. “The bulk‑water infrastructure built long ago is now vandalised. Some residents have piped water from the Drakensberg mountain to their homes. This is costly. Others rely on buying water. Tankering is not done regularly,” said Sekgobela.
GroundUp was also taken to one of the streams where some Mametja residents fetch water. Headman Johannes Mhalako says he paid for a low wall to separate the place where animals drink, from the place where families fetch water, a few metres upstream. But when GroundUp was there, cattle had walked over the wall and were drinking next to several women who were doing laundry or fetching water.
“I plead with the municipality to demarcate areas so animals don’t drink where people collect water,” Mhalako said.
One of the women, Lidisa Minetja, told GroundUp she used to buy water but can no longer afford it. She makes five trips daily to the stream, carrying three 25‑litre buckets in a wheelbarrow. Her home is a few metres away.
Godfrey Mahlako, a resident of Sedawa village, is worried about elderly residents who sometimes use their social grants to buy water as they cannot walk the 4km to the stream. Mahlako also claims that MDM does not regularly tanker water to their village: “The stream is far, and it’s dangerous to go alone. We urge the municipality to tanker water regularly,” he said.
In Botshwana village, some residents fetch water from a man-made well. Resident Rebeccah Selgobela told GroundUp that at times they have to wake up in the early hours to queue.
MDM’s Ngobeni said water tankers do go to some villages. But some residents claim this is not consistent, leaving the communities to buy water or walk long distances to fetch water.