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ActionSA can reveal in response to a parliamentary question that standard procurement processes were sidestepped regarding the Lepelle Northern Water Board’s Sand Abstraction Project. This has resulted in R23 million being spent under questionable circumstances.

According to the Minister, a directive issued in September 2019 by the department Water and Sanitation Ministry instructed Lepelle Northern Water Board to explore new sand abstraction technologies. However, instead of conducting an open and competitive tender process, the entity appointed Empowering Water Solution on the basis that it held “exclusive rights” to a particular technology. This justification raises red flags, as exclusivity cannot be used as a blanket exemption from public procurement laws that ensure transparency and value for money.

Records show payments totalling over R23 million, including R299,000 and R600,000 during the “piloting phase”, followed by payments of R12.3 million, R4.4 million, R4.4 million, and R1.79 million during the “demonstration stage”. These expenditures all occurred outside standard procurement channels and have now resulted in a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigation. 

ActionSA calls on the Minister to publicly release the SIU’s final report once concluded and to take immediate steps to recover any fruitless and wasteful expenditure. South Africans deserve transparency and accountability in every Rand spent on water infrastructure, particularly in Limpopo, where communities continue to suffer from chronic water shortages despite repeated and ongoing promises of progress.

ActionSA reiterates that the culture of impunity within state water entities must end. Projects like this, marked by deviations, inflated costs, and incomplete investigations, rob South Africans not only of their money but of their constitutional right to clean and reliable water.

Issued by ActionSA Member of Parliament Malebo Kobe