Standerton residents endure prolonged water interruptions as municipal failures and costly tanker hire draw sharp criticism from community leaders.

Standerton is in the midst of a water crisis, with regular supply interruptions leaving communities dry for days and even weeks.
These ongoing issues have left many households without this vital resource since late 2025.

Lubabalo Majenge, the spokesperson for the Lekwa Local Municipality (LLM), said the challenges were due to limited abstraction capacity after one of four raw water pumping units broke down on February 7.

“The malfunction significantly reduced the municipality’s ability to extract and process sufficient raw water for distribution,” said Majenge, adding that excessive algae growth in the Vaal River, the town’s primary water source, had also affected the LLM’s ability to provide water.

The growth clogs the Standerton Water Treatment Plant’s filtration system, affecting how much water can be purified and supplied to communities. Majenge said the LLM is trying to repair a submersible pumping unit to restore some lost capacity.

“In addition, the procurement process for two new pumping units is completed. The service provider is assessing the site before delivery, anticipated for this week,” stated Majenge.

The LLM expects these interventions to improve and stabilise water production once fully implemented. Majenge added that the LLM isurgently addressing these challenges.

However, Clr Sello Tsotetsi, the spokesperson for the Lekwa Community Forum (LCF), claimed on February 10 that people in Lekwa have been deliberately abandoned and forced to live without water while the LLM treats the crisis as an inconvenience.

“Water is life; a basic human right,” stated Tsotetsi.

He said families could not cook, clean or live with dignity amid this problem, and that the water shortage was not a technical problem, but a humanitarian crisis.

Water tanker hire under scrutiny
Tsotetsi criticised the LLM for spending millions on renting water tankers instead of fixing water infrastructure. According to a procurement report for the final quarter of 2025, the LLM spent R5.4m on renting these tankers between September and November, and shows 22 instances of tanker hire involving eight companies over three months.

This kind of expenditure is neither normal nor justifiable.

“Tankers are meant to be short-term emergency interventions, not a permanent operational solution,” said Tsotetsi.

He said the scale of tanker use points to neglect of bulk water infrastructure, poor planning and weak management.

“At over R200 000 a tanker, the expectation is that reliable schedules would be in place, coverage would be consistent, and water outages would be reduced. The fact that the water crisis persists despite this spending suggests fruitless expenditure,” said Tsotetsi.

Tsotetsi also raised concerns that eight companies were used, including service providers in Newcastle and Emalahleni.

“This reflects procurement fragmentation and a lack of strategy. This pattern demands scrutiny, especially given the high costs and poor service outcomes,” he said.

He added that the millions spent on tankers could have been redirected to infrastructure maintenance.

“This abnormally high expenditure has become a substitute for proper water infrastructure management, instead of an emergency response.”

However, he is more concerned that communities continue to spend days without water despite this exorbitant expenditure.

“If even a portion of the R5.4 million had gone into maintaining reservoirs and preventative infrastructure maintenance, or towards repairs on the municipality’s own water tankers, the dependency on renting tankers would have been reduced,” stated Tsotetsi.

“The LCF condemns this practice and calls for urgent investigations and accountability for those responsible,” concluded Tsotetsi.

The LLM counters
Majenge said the LLM owned six water trucks, only one of which worked, and that seven trucks were hired over four months to address water challenges in some wards.

He added that these trucks were necessary due to the capacity of the bulk infrastructure, resulting in residents, schools and clinics in these wards not having access to the supply.

The affected areas include Phalama, Ext 2, Ext 8, Hlongwane Drive and Malgatlela and Vilakazi streets.

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