Municipal workers at the Driftsands Wastewater Treatment Works have resorted to using rakes and other tools to remove condoms and women's sanitary products from the raw sewage. (Photo: Daron Mann) 
Three weeks ago, Daily Maverick visited one of Nelson Mandela Bay’s wastewater treatment facilities that has been left inoperable owing to cable theft and vulnerable to thieves and vandals, who slowly strip anything of value.
However, thinking that any decay at the facility would occur slowly was a miscalculation, as the state of the Driftsands Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTW) has escalated to concerning levels in the few short weeks since it made headlines.
While the police have confirmed multiple cases are under investigation related to the continuing decline of the facility, municipal officials say plans are in place to rectify the situation and bring the crucial infrastructure back online.
Initial reports indicated that the main power line, running between the facility near the Chief Dawid Stuurman Airport and the suburb of Walmer, was first targeted by cable thieves more than a year ago. This left Driftsands without electricity and dependent on a generator to power much of the vital equipment needed to treat raw sewage from Gqeberha’s coastal suburbs.
However, since then the facility has become almost completely dormant, leading to pollution of the nearby bushes where untreated sewage flows freely into a ravine that eventually leads to the coastline south of Gqeberha.
Read more: Cable theft leaves Nelson Mandela Bay awash in raw sewage
Thieves have evidently gained access to the facility repeatedly and stripped any cables they can get their hands on unimpeded.
The evidence of this was already clear last month when Daily Maverick visited the facility, but the situation has become much worse since then. Nelson Mandela Bay media personality Daron Mann captured the degradation on his Youtube channel, the Daron Mann Encounter.
/file/attachments/orphans/DriftsandsDaron1_456720.jpg "Electrical cables meant to power equipment at the Driftsands Wastewater Treatment Works have been stripped, leaving machinery inoperable. (Photo: Daron Mann)")
“The signs of neglect and abandonment are all over. In fact, if you did not know any better, you would swear this was a decommissioned wastewater treatment plant,” Mann said.
His video captured images of electrical cables inside the facility hacked off close to the ground where they surface from underground conduits. Not a single piece of equipment in the entire Driftsands facility is operational.
“Fortunately for viewers, technology has not yet developed smell-a-vision. You can only imagine the aroma,” he said, while filming tanks and trenches filled to overflowing with raw, untreated sewage.
He also showed municipal workers at the facility having to use rakes and rubbish bins to remove items such as condoms and women’s sanitary products from the wastewater and putting them in bins to be discarded later.
That seems to be the full extent of treatment the sewage gets before running through the facility and into the nearby vegetation.
Municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya confirmed that normal operations at Driftsands have been adversely affected as the facility had lost its main power supply because of cable theft and vandalism.
As part of the municipality’s ongoing efforts to counter damage to critical infrastructure, it has reaffirmed its position that cases should be reported to the police for investigation as soon as possible.
Soyaya said the Driftsands incident was reported immediately to the relevant municipal departments and law enforcement authorities.
South African Police Service (SAPS) officials confirmed that multiple cases related to Driftsands are currently under investigation by detectives at the Humewood police station.
“SAPS Humewood confirmed that there were three cases opened at the Driftsands water works,” police spokesperson Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said.
“The first, a case of damage to infrastructure, was reported in November 2025. In December 2025, two cases of theft were opened – one related to copper cables and the other related to copper pipes and fencing.”
Janse van Rensburg said it is unclear who reported the first case, but both cases opened in December were reported by a security guard at the facility.
/file/attachments/orphans/DriftsandsDaron3_770883.jpg "Signs of forced entry and vandalism are evident at the non-operational Driftsands Wastewater Treatment Works. (Photo: Daron Mann)")
According to Soyaya, improved security and coordination between municipal officials, community security structures and the police resulted in a suspect being apprehended last month.
Meanwhile, processes are under way to do the necessary repairs at Driftsands, and the facility is scheduled to be operational by May.
“Internal funding was reallocated to enable urgent corrective work on the affected asset, and the required council approval processes were completed in the current financial year to ensure the restoration project proceeded within governance requirements. A contractor has now been appointed to restore the main electrical supply.”
Municipal officials from various directorates had a joint site meeting with the appointed service provider on 30 January.
“The project has moved into the execution phase. The estimated restoration period is approximately eight weeks, subject to site conditions,” Soyaya said.
While repairs are ongoing, Soyaya said that Driftsands will continue to operate “in a constrained mode”, using a standby generator to power essential treatment processes. DM