The Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC) welcomed Mahlobo’s lightning visit but added it was imperative that all strategic elements of the project – including security and stakeholder co-governance – be coordinated properly for sustainability.

Major concerns remain that Rand Water is not addressing the unstable and dangerous security situation beyond the superficial and that the project was still being held hostage by cable thieves strongly supported by communities and certain community organisations.

Attacks by gunmen, cable thieves and even community members are common especially since many residents feel they are not involved – leading to hostage situations and halting of work in the past.

Yet no special provision is being made by the Government to halt especially cable thieves who wait for new equipment and refurbishment to be installed and then strike thus reversing progress.

Minister Mahlobo, who is tasked with personally managing the project by Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu, visited Sebokeng last Tuesday to galvanise the three-year national Government project.

Minister Mahlobo visited work being organised by implementing agent Rand Water on the Zone 10 pipeline and said the utility provider had been ordered to “expedite work”.

At the heart of concern is that sewage pollution of both township streets and the River has not yet been halted in the new three-year project launched late last year – but independent of Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM), says organised business.

Rand Water this week started engaging separately with stakeholders – separating environmental groups from business and other sector stakeholders – in a move seemingly diametrically opposed to the engagement process already started by the Water and Sanitation Department last year.

Stakeholders from across the spectrum want to see the project co-managed and co-implemented by a Project Steering Committee chaired by Deputy Minister Mahlobo personally and not by Rand Water alone.

GTCoC CEO Klippies Kritzinger said the entire project needed better strategic coordination and governance and that unless security issues were based on intelligence-driven operations and not merely static guards there was no hope of success.

“Unless you hunt the syndicates and disrupt them there is no point in spending billions on infrastructure improvement if criminals carry it all away the next day with impunity every time?

“Unless we are forced to conclude that many Government and Municipal officials are benefiting from such infrastructure theft such as cable and transformer theft?” Kritzinger asked.