The Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality is confronting a severe water crisis, which its Executive Mayor has directly attributed to a powerful and well-funded criminal syndicate deliberately targeting and destroying essential water infrastructure.
In a recent interview, Mayor Khumalo Molefe stated that the vandalism of a reservoir pump house in Dinokana Village is the latest in a long series of attacks that have brought the semi-arid district to its knees. The incident involved twelve armed men who tied up security guards and stole all the cabling, crippling the water supply to multiple wards.
“We are up against a syndicate that is well equipped, well armed and well funded,” Mayor Molefe declared. “In this syndicate, I will tell you that you’ve got some municipal officials, some politicians, some unscrupulous business people.”
The mayor described the syndicate’s alleged “modus operandi” as a two-pronged attack on the municipality. He claimed that behind the scenes, unscrupulous business people fund desperate, unemployed young people to vandalize infrastructure and steal materials like copper to sell to scrapyards. Simultaneously, the same funders are alleged to orchestrate protest actions to pressure the municipality into procuring services from them.
“It’s a water mafia that we are up against, basically,” Mayor Molefe stated.
The financial impact on the grant-dependent municipality is devastating. Mayor Molefe revealed that millions of Rands intended for water provision are being diverted to repair and replace vandalized infrastructure, a situation he called “not sustainable.”
In response to the Dinokana attack, municipal teams are on the ground working on repairs. The municipality is also deploying its own water tankers to provide relief, a measure the mayor said “will come at a dear price.” He emphasized that the municipality has discontinued outsourced water tankering to avoid potentially funding the very syndicates sabotaging the system.
On security, the mayor outlined extensive but struggling countermeasures. The municipality employs private security, has 2,700 boreholes to protect, and is implementing technological solutions like security cameras. However, he expressed deep frustration with the lack of prosecutions, revealing that nearly 80 reported cases have yet to see a breakthrough, even when suspects were caught red-handed or on camera.
“I plead for the law enforcement agencies to come on board,” he said, appealing directly to the President for a special task team to tackle what he termed the “water massacre.” He added, “If we’re not going to break the back of this syndicate the municipality is already down on its knees.”
While acknowledging resource challenges within the South African Police Service, Mayor Molefe confirmed he has no record of a single successful prosecution related to these crimes. He commended the community for their vigilance and assistance in some instances, expressing hope that continued collaboration with residents and law enforcement would lead to arrests.
The ongoing sabotage in Dinokana has left wards without reliable water, exacerbating the challenges in a district where water is a critical and scarce resource.
