Lost-and-found Makhanda water pump — residents to finally get it back, with an even heftier price tag

Ratepayers in the Makana Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape will now pay an additional R2.2-million for their “missing” R4.7-million water pump after the municipality finally, after more than three years, made a deal with the manufacturer to have it delivered and installed.

The decision was taken by the Makana municipal council on Wednesday, 18 September. Councillor Philip Machanik from the Makana Citizens Front said it was agreed to make the payment so that water supply to parts of Makhanda can be stabilised, since the pump is essential for the operation of the Howieson’s Poort water treatment works.

The pump was originally meant to be financed through a water services grant from the Department of Water and Sanitation, but this was withdrawn because of the many delays in commissioning the project.

Ratepayers will also have to cough up to buy essential accessories for the pump and pay for its installation and warranty – even though all this was covered by the original R4.7-million tender. These additional costs are not yet known, and council documents do not explain why items listed in the original tender now require further funding.

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The pump – long described as “missing” – has in fact been sitting in Donnlee Pump Tech’s Benoni factory since February 2023, where it was being held in storage because of an outstanding payment.

In 2022, the municipality had awarded the contract for the pump to an intermediary, Manco Business Enterprise, which subcontracted Donnlee to manufacture it. The municipality lost track of the pump until Donnlee recently responded with surprise to a story published in Daily Maverick and revealed its whereabouts.

Additional costs of R317,477, linked to delays in payment, have been added to the total that will be paid to Donnlee.

The municipality’s former director of infrastructural services and engineering, Asanda Gidana, was fired in November 2023 for paying for the pump without due diligence, among other issues.

In the latest council report it also emerged that the service-level agreements had not been signed by the municipality, yet payment had been approved.

In August 2023 a new agreement was made with Manco, according to a report from municipal manager Pumelelo Kate. It was eventually cancelled because the pump was not supplied.

Kate’s report states that the matter was referred to a legal firm to recover the R2.6-million that was originally paid to Manco by Gidana. No date was given for this step. The report says the municipality will “deal with” Manco’s non-performance later.

The municipality insists that Manco paid only R1.735-million to Donnlee, well short of the R2.6-million Makana paid to Manco.

Kate’s report continued that Manco had “put the municipality under enormous pressure” from “various stakeholders and the community at large”. Since only a partial payment for the pump had been made by Manco, Manco ceded the balance of the amount owed to Donnlee.

Why now?

According to papers before the council, the cession agreement had been concluded within two weeks of the whereabouts of the pump being published in Daily Maverick.

The latest development comes within a week of an intervention launched in the municipality by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. There have been several failed interventions before.

The department’s spokesperson, Legadima Leso, issued a statement in August to explain that “reinforcement support teams” were being introduced to Makana to strengthen governance.

Deputy Minister Namane Dickson Masemola described such deployments as efforts to stabilise municipalities. The support teams are expected to augment municipal capacity and drive change rooted in ethics, inclusive development and re­­­sponsiveness to community needs.

The support teams comprise experts in project management, town and regional planning, engineering, finance and information technology.

Councillors welcomed the initiative, describing it as an opportunity to find solutions to problems including poor audit outcomes, fiscal constraints, technical capacity limitations and declining public trust.

In August, the South African Human Rights Commission subpoenaed mayor Yandiswa Vara and Kate to explain the water ­crisis in Makhanda. This came after the commission had issued a damning report and had become concerned that the municipality was ignoring its recommendations.

At a hearing, commissioner Henk Boshoff said it appeared that the municipality was blatantly disrespecting the commission. 

Referring to continuing water supply failures, he said: “You are guilty of human rights violations… There is obviously no solution to your municipality. It is obvious nothing is working.”

During the hearing, Kate played down the issue of the pump, but he did say it would be crucial to solving the water crisis. Vara agreed with this. “It is a solution we are relying on,” she said.

However, giving context to the state of municipal finances, Kate said the municipality had been “battered” and the public was “not enthusiastic to pay rates”.

Kate conceded before the Human Rights Commission that no due diligence had been done before the hefty partial payment of R2.6-million to Manco was made.

He said the municipality was still discussing how to pay the extra costs caused by the delays. DM

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