Deliberate infrastructure sabotage and rampant corruption are the primary drivers of the Makana municipality’s failure to provide basic water services, according to findings released by the South African Human Rights Commission in Makhanda.
While municipal leaders have historically blamed a lack of funding for the region’s dry taps, the commission’s latest investigation report reveals that scarce financial resources are being systematically wasted and mismanaged. The crisis has triggered an active probe by the Special Investigating Unit under a presidential proclamation, which is currently examining serious maladministration, procurement irregularities, and the payment of unlawful overtime benefits.
The sheer scale of the financial collapse was laid bare through evidence provided by the auditor general, which highlighted that the municipality has received seven consecutive audit disclaimers. Official documents show that hundreds of millions of rands in irregular and unauthorised expenditure remain unaccounted for, while critical infrastructure projects stall. The commission highlighted instances of gross negligence, including an advance payment of nearly R5m to a service provider for a water pump that was never delivered, while the department of cooperative governance previously raised the alarm over the emergence of profiteering “water mafias” exploiting the ongoing supply disruptions.
Addressing the community during the report’s live release, the national commissioner, Henk Boshoff, rejected the municipality’s standard defence of inadequate funding.
“The dysfunctionality of local government in South Africa is not only about the lack of service delivery, but it’s predominantly about corruption, financial mismanagement,” he stated.
He further revealed a darker operational reality, noting that in many municipalities, including Makana, municipal infrastructure is being “deliberately sabotaged by municipal employees, by service providers to benefit service providers, municipal employees and municipal councillors.”
With the Special Investigating Unit expected to release its final presidential report in the second quarter of 2026, the human rights commission has demanded urgent consequence management. The auditor general has already escalated material irregularities concerning the municipality’s environmental non-compliance and financial decay. Moving forward, the commission plans to work directly with parliamentary portfolio committees to ensure that those implicated in the financial ruin of Makana face criminal prosecution and are entirely removed from the local government sector.
