Water tanker cadres keep cashing in on R223m Joburg contract despite court action

AmaBhungane exposed how two 20-somethings with no experience and who run companies without their own tankers, called Nutinox and Built-Pro, are doing a roaring trade with the city as its water supply falters. 

Johannesburg’s water system is in crisis and Daily Maverick’s reporting over years shows that it is a systemic and years-long problem. Areas to the southwest and east of the city experience multi-day cuts when tankers are sent out.

Now, Daily Maverick has confirmed from council minutes that despite a court case brought by a losing bidder and an internal audit investigation ordered by Mayor Dada Morero in January 2025, the contract is still in place.

“Yes, it [the contract] is still in place. The service is as-and-when-required; therefore, there’s no value and we have been deploying trucks according to Johannesburg Water requirements,” a Nutinox spokesperson, who did not supply their name, said via email. 

Asked to explain how there is no value, when council minutes state a value of R223-million, the person wrote: “Please note we will not be entertaining any further media inquiries regarding the above subject. Our role is to only ensure we deliver services as required.”

Built-Pro did not respond to queries over weeks. Both companies have strikingly similar websites and appear to share a domain creation date and registry and registrar expiration dates, details of which are publicly available online. Neither has a track record in water supply and both appear to be like many companies set up only to tender to the local government and to provide services in areas of state failure, such as water tankers. 

The Nutrinox spokesperson threatened to take legal advice if Daily Maverick noted the website similarities and domain registration. They would also not answer questions about rates received per tanker or what percentage of the as-and-when contract has been exercised.

“The disclosure of this information would constitute an unreasonable release of Nutinox’s confidential commercial data, which is not in the public interest and could compromise the integrity of our business operations, including providing our competitors with an unfair advantage,” the spokesperson said.

Nutinox is owned by Sibuyile Magingxa and Built-Pro is owned by Emmanuel Keith Sserufusa, both 20-something-year-old entrepreneurs. Since being exposed by amaBhungane, both have scrubbed their social media accounts, after it was shown that Magingxa moves in the orbit of Deputy President Paul Mashatile and went along on a major trade trip to France.  

Read more: Who went to Paris with Paul? Water tanker tenderpreneur joined Mashatile’s France-SA business entourage

Researchers in the general area have found that water tankering is often extractive and expensive, subject to opaque tariff structures and with inflated emergency supply contracts. Johannesburg Water has previously told Daily Maverick it is investigating community complaints that tankers arrive before unscheduled water cuts, but it has never made these reports public.

A Johannesburg Water spokesperson said: “The matter [of Nutinox and Built-Pro] is currently before the High Court. Johannesburg Water will therefore not comment on the case at this stage.”

‘Not sustainable’

The spokesperson said the utility had bought 20 of its own tankers and will buy 20 more. The national Department of Water and Sanitation is trying to insist that local councils buy rather than lease because of the opacity and room for corruption in water tinkering.

“Water tankering should not be viewed as a sustainable or permanent solution for providing water services, as it is expensive, challenging to regulate, unreliable and prone to misuse, irregularities and corruption. It has unintended consequences, such as water tanker operators sabotaging water infrastructure to obtain water tankering contracts.

“Therefore, the department’s policy position is that water services authorities should not outsource water tankering; rather they are encouraged to insource the use of tankers. The entities should take ownership of them,” said spokesperson Wisane Mavasa.

“The DA is outraged that despite writing to the ministers of Cogta [Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, which is in charge of municipal affairs] and Finance, as well as the Auditor-General in January, no action has been taken to investigate. A PAIA [access to information] request was sent on 27 January 2025 and acknowledged on 28 January with zero response,” said the party’s caucus leader, Belinda Echeo-Zonjoku.

“The DA warned from the start that an award of this scale to politically connected companies without verification was a recipe for corruption. The contract required 75 tankers, yet no evidence exists these were on the ground,” she said. DM