Infamous water pump is now in Makhanda, but accountability is missing

Almost four years after a much-needed water pump was procured for the Howieson’s Poort Dam in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, it was finally delivered to the municipality this month. Ratepayers in the Makana Local Municipality had to pay an additional R2.3-million for the pump to arrive, bringing the total amount paid for it to R4.6-million.

The pump was abandoned at the Benoni premises of the company that manufactured it because the contractor that had ordered it, Manco Business Enterprise, had a payment dispute with the municipality. It 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meant to be financed through a water services grant from the Department of Water and Sanitation, but this was withdrawn because of the many delays in commissioning the project.

In 2022, the municipality had awarded the contract for the pump to Manco Business Enterprise, which subcontracted Donnlee Pump Tech to manufacture it, but did not pay its invoice in full. According to the municipality, Makana’s former director of infrastructural services and engineering, Asanda Gidana, made a prepayment of R2.3-million on the pump without performing due diligence or having a finalised service-­level agreement in place. She was fired for this.

In August 2023, a new agreement was made with Manco, according to a report from municipal manager Pumelelo Kate. It was eventually cancelled because Manco did not supply the pump. Kate’s report states that the matter was referred to a legal firm to recover the R2.3-million that Gidana paid to Manco. No date was ­given for this step. The report says the municipality will “deal with” Manco’s nonperformance later. The matter hasn’t been resolved.

The municipality insisted that Manco had paid only R1.735-million to Donnlee, well short of the R2.3-million that Gidana had paid to Manco.

Makana municipality spokesperson Anele Mjekula, who answered questions on the issue for the first time, confirmed that the municipality paid an additional R2.3-million to get the pump back, bringing the total amount paid for the pump to R4.6-million. Manco has not been blacklisted and Mjekula said the municipality was “in the process of calculating” what the company owed it.

Careless with public money

Makana has always insisted that the pump was not “lost”. Municipal officials testified before the South African Human Rights Commission that they had made an advance payment to a service provider who then failed to deliver the equipment within the contractual period, and that the matter was the subject of litigation and disciplinary processes.

The commissioners were not convinced and remarked in a recent report: “The commission notes that, even on Makana’s version, the advance payment for equipment that was not delivered within the contractual period raises serious concerns regarding procurement controls, contract management, consequence management and the safeguarding of public funds intended for critical water infrastructure.”

When the pump arrived in Makhanda last week, the municipality posted several pictures on social media of senior local politicians posing with the pump.

The accompanying statement said: “Makana Local Municipality wishes to inform all stakeholders, community members and interested parties that the purchased redundancy/spare pump set has finally arrived.” It claimed there was a “long delivery delay”, and went on: “We are pleased to close this chapter and focus on supplying water to the Makana community.” DM

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.