In recent weeks, explosive revelations about water tanker contracts in Tshwane and Johannesburg have exposed a disturbing reality: South Africa’s water crisis is increasingly shaped not only by infrastructure failure, but by corruption. Investigations into the City of Tshwane’s tanker spending – which surged to about R777 million in the 2024/25 financial year – have raised serious questions about politically connected contractors and the value actually delivered to residents. In Johannesburg, a R263 million tanker contract has already been declared unlawful by the High Court, yet the city continues to rely on it as taps run dry across large parts of the metro.

These developments suggest something deeper than administrative incompetence. They point to a growing phenomenon that increasingly resembles a localised form of state capture.

State capture was never only about national departments and cabinet ministers. At its core, it involved bending public institutions away from their lawful purpose and toward private enrichment. The same logic is now visible in parts of the water sector. What should be a temporary “band-aid” emergency measure has in many communities become a parallel economy. Municipalities spent roughly R2,32 billion on water tanker services in 2024 alone – money that should ideally have been directed toward repairing pipes, maintaining treatment plants and expanding reliable supply. Instead, tanker contracts have become a lucrative business precisely because the underlying infrastructure crisis remains unresolved.

From a constitutional perspective, this raises serious concerns. Section 27(1)(b) of the Constitution guarantees everyone the right of access to sufficient water. That right cannot be meaningfully fulfilled where municipalities substitute reliable piped services with expensive and irregular tanker deliveries. Moreover, section 7(2) obliges the state to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights contained in the Bill of Rights. When emergency water trucking becomes routine rather than exceptional, it signals a failure of governance that extends beyond local administration. It becomes a constitutional concern that may justify intervention by higher spheres of government, leading to further capture in and of itself.

So, let us look at the value of how our rands are spent. Water delivered by tanker can cost several times more than normal piped supply, placing enormous strain on already struggling municipal budgets. The Auditor-General has warned that prolonged reliance on tankers is driving escalating costs, and in Tshwane one public comparison placed the gap at roughly 1 cent per litre for water itself versus 10 cents per litre for tanker delivery. On that kind of arithmetic, 5 000 litres that might cost roughly R163,70 through the normal domestic tariff can rise to about R500 when delivered by tanker. When this happens repeatedly, money that should repair infrastructure is diverted into short-term contracts, making the crisis more expensive and more permanent.

The long-term cost of this failure will be carried by young South Africans. Money that should repair infrastructure is diverted into expensive tanker contracts, leaving the next generation to inherit unreliable systems and shrinking public resources. Every rand spent on tankers today is a rand not invested in the systems that should sustain tomorrow.

Encouragingly, some corrective steps are now emerging. The Special Investigating Unit has begun probing tanker contracts in Tshwane, while national government has signalled that intervention may be necessary to stabilise water services in struggling metros. Treasury has also introduced measures in the 2026 Budget to ensure that revenue collected from water services is reinvested directly into maintaining those systems. Initiatives such as the new Water Sector Anti-Corruption Forum aim to coordinate oversight and clamp down on procurement abuse.

Yet investigations and policy reforms will matter only if they translate into real accountability and restored infrastructure. Water tankers should be an emergency response – not a permanent substitute for functioning municipal systems. South Africa does not lack the technical knowledge or legal framework to provide reliable water services. What it has lacked, in too many places, is governance that prioritises the public interest over private gain.

The tanker scandals unfolding today mirror the corruption exposed in Tembisa – different sector, same pattern of public funds diverted while communities suffer. Breaking this cycle requires strict enforcement of procurement law, transparent infrastructure spending and fidelity to the Constitution, which demands that public resources serve the people, not those who profit from collapse.