The political battle over water tanker spending in the City of Tshwane has escalated, with ActionSA and the Democratic Alliance (DA) trading sharp accusations over the allocation of R777 million in the 2024/25 financial year. At the heart of the dispute is who is responsible for the skyrocketing expenditure and alleged corruption linked to water tanker contracts.
According to reports, the controversy stems from allegations that hundreds of millions of rand were spent on water tanker contracts in Tshwane, raising concerns about irregular procurement, politically connected beneficiaries, and the role of a growing “water tanker mafia” in driving up costs.
ActionSA’s National Chairperson, Michael Beaumont, hit back at the DA after the opposition accused the Tshwane government of corruption, stressing that the contracts under scrutiny were awarded during the DA’s own tenure.
“The Sunday Times published a series of claims relating to water tankers in the City of Tshwane and, in the process, managed to spectacularly misrepresent the facts. Naturally, this was then driven on digital platforms by the DA, without any sense of irony that this is the party with questions that should be answered,” Beaumont said in a statement.
He emphasised that water tankers serve as a temporary solution, noting that successive governments, including those of the DA, have failed for years to provide clean, safe drinking water to communities across the city, and pointed out that the DA conveniently left this out of their allegations.
Beaumont further clarified that the current administration has cut water tanker spending compared to the DA era and launched its own procurement programme to tackle the entrenched water tanker mafia, generating savings of R12 million each month.
He also addressed claims about the total cost of water tanker contracts, stating that the R777 million figure cited by the DA was misleading.
“The claim that R777 million has been expended on water tankers is equally and demonstrably false. The article failed to capture that R179 million paid in the 2024/25 financial year related to unpaid invoices incurred in the previous financial year under Brink’s mayoralty,” he added.
He accused the DA of shifting blame, saying Brink’s campaign focuses on problems caused by his own and his party’s mismanagement of Tshwane.
“During DA's tenure, the city accumulated R6 billion in Eskom debt, R1 billion in liabilities to municipal workers, and saw cholera deaths from contaminated water alongside an electricity crisis,” he said.
Beaumont applauded the current administration led by Executive Mayor Nasiphi Moya for its efforts to restore Tshwane, urging it to remain focused on turning the city around despite attempts by former leaders to deflect responsibility for past failures.
The DA, however, maintained that serious corruption persists.
Ald Cilliers Brink, DA Tshwane Mayoral Candidate, welcomed the ongoing Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe into the R777 million spent on water tankers by the City of Tshwane in the 2024/2025 financial year, calling it an important step towards uncovering the full extent of corruption and abuse by Tshwane’s water tanker mafia.
He said the ballooning expenditure under the ANC-led administration has laid bare the real reason the ANC removed the DA from government in Tshwane.
Brink pointed out that after the DA had identified irregularities and refused to approve questionable invoices, the ANC, with the assistance of ActionSA, moved to remove the DA-led government and immediately authorised payments on the same invoices, “despite there being no proof that the tankers had actually operated.”
Brink claimed that the ANC-led administration’s decision to resume payments on unpaid invoices caused water tanker spending to soar by 455% in just one financial year, and urged Moya to act decisively to address the issue.
“The Executive Mayor, Dr Nasiphi Moya, must act now. The power to appoint and dismiss members of the Mayoral Committee resides in her office, and she should use that power immediately to remove Eugene Modise as MMC for Finance,” he added.
The Star
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