Mystery solved — ‘missing’ Makana water pump found on Benoni factory floor

A “missing” R4.7-million water pump that the Eastern Cape’s Makana Local Municipality refuses to discuss has been standing at a company that manufactures, repairs and services pumps in Benoni, Gauteng, since 24 February 2023.

Francois Grobbelaar from Donnlee Pump Tech, who almost choked on his coffee when he read about the pump in last week’s DM168, is keen to get rid of it. “This pump is not missing,” he said. “It stands here and it works on my nerves. It has become a running joke on the factory floor, and I am stuck with it.

“I think Koos Kombuis and Valiant Swart said it best. You tell them [the municipality], ‘Johnny is nie dood nie, hy’s net uitgepass (Johnny is not dead, he’s just passed out)’,” Grobbelaar continued, referring to the Afrikaans singers’ version of the popular song.

He said the Makana Municipality awarded a contract for the pump worth R4.7-million to Manco Business Enterprise, based in East London. On 14 July 2022, Manco contracted Donnlee to manufacture the pump, a highly specialised piece of equipment, and so it did.

The pump was completed on 24 February 2023, but it wasn’t released because it had not been paid for in full. Eventually, the debt owed on the pump by the Makana Municipality was ceded to Donnlee Pump Tech and, more than two years later, it is still standing on the floor in its factory.

According to council agendas, the municipality is – correctly – under the impression that the pump was paid for and not delivered. Former director of infrastructural services and engineering Asanda Gidana was fired in November 2023 for paying for the pump without following due diligence, among other issues.

In her case against the municipality at the Local Government Bargaining Council, it was conceded that a partial or “progressive” payment was made in terms of a service level agreement for the pump.

Grobbelaar said that every now and then someone would come to see him and ask how much it would cost to buy the pump. “Even the Gift of the Givers team was here at one stage,” he added. “So if the municipality says the pump is missing, they are lying. I speak to their legal department almost every week.

“I don’t want the pump and I can’t really sell it to someone else. I really want my auditors off my back about it. I have a long email trail that shows you how I’ve tried.”

After Daily Maverick started asking questions about the pump, Grobbelaar was invited to a meeting with the Makana Municipality on Wednesday, 6 August, but it was cancelled. The municipality, the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation and the Amatola Water utility, which sells bulk water to Eastern Cape municipalities, did not respond to requests for comment.

Dire situation

But the agendas for the municipality’s infrastructure and engineering committee provide more disturbing facts. At the time of the tender for the pump being put out in June 2022, there had been more than 100 water outages in Makhanda in the first six months of the year.

The pump was destined for the Howieson’s Poort pumping station, which supplies water to the Waainek water treatment works. Waainek has a capacity of eight megalitres a day and serves the town area, the prison, hospitals and Rhodes University. Raw water is pumped to this system from the Howieson’s Poort and Settlers dams.

Lungile Mxube, a councillor for the Makana Citizens Front, laid a charge of fraud and corruption against the municipal manager and the mayor last week over the “loss” of the pump. Part of his complaint is that they had failed to recoup the municipality’s losses for the pump from Manco.

In an affidavit explaining his opening a case against the officials for contravening the Municipal Finance Act, Mxube wrote that “a payment of R2,694,029.63” to Manco for the supply, installation and delivery of a water pump to the municipality was “wrongfully facilitated”.

Councillors in the Makana council said they had been asking questions about the pump for years. AfriForum came to investigate. Two witnesses who followed the money trail were apparently threatened.

Council agendas further reveal that there are more pumps that have been abandoned at engineering factories as the municipality cannot pay for their repair.

One report states: “The challenges are inappropriate humans and a lack of skills and supply chain management.”

In several agendas, councillors also express their frustration that the town’s chief financial officer, Nomfundo Ntsangani, does not attend meetings or sends a representative to discuss issues of payment for essential equipment, among other things.

Council at a loss

Officials have been warning countless times since 2024 that there was a single pump working at Howieson’s Poort pumping ­station (where the Donnlee pump must go) and that it was at high risk because there was no backup pump. One was finally installed in June.

According to council reports, two other pumps from different water plants around the town were taken in for repairs. One is now at Sulzer Pumps, where it has been since March 2024 because the municipality owed an amount that was later clarified to be R1.8-million.

Another pump was taken in for repairs by the Department of Water and Sanitation’s implementing agent, Amatola Water, and the council owes R500,000 for it. From June’s agenda it appears that there could be more than one pump at Sulzer as there is a promise to sort out “the Sulzer pumps”, but this may just refer to the company’s name.

The latest available set of agendas for the infrastructure and engineering committee is for June. The Donnlee pump gets a mention in that the case is now with the municipality’s legal department.

In July, local activist Philip Machanick said it was clear that, after the Makana Business and Residents’ Association asked for information on the whereabouts of the town’s pumps, the council did not know.

After city manager Pumelelo Kate had to depose an affidavit revealing where all the pumps were, he was forced to admit that the municipality had “lost control” of some of its pumps. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.