The eThekwini Municipality says vandalism and tampering with critical water infrastructure disrupt service delivery, while costing the city millions of rand.
Accordingly, the municipality believes some incidents could be politically motivated with the aim of deliberately destabilising service delivery ahead of November’s local government elections.
Residents in parts of KwaMashu and Ntuzuma, north of Durban, are bearing the brunt of repeated water outages caused by vandalism and municipal infrastructure tampering.
The eThekwini Municipality says the problem has escalated significantly this year, with more than 200 pressure-reducing valves vandalised in the area alone.
City officials estimate the damages already exceed R50m.
The City’s Water and Sanitation Unit – senior manager, Jabulani Mayise, says this places additional pressure on the already strained finances.
“In this area, in particular, Ntuzuma and Inanda, it’s a daily occurrence which impacts these areas that we see here, particularly the M section of KwaMashu. Vandalism is not happening in KwaMashu, but it’s happening in Ntuzuma. Currently, this year, we have confirmed 205 pressure-reducing valves that have been vandalised, causing outages in this area. If you take, roughly per site, the cost is R250000, multiply that by 205, so it’s over R50 million,” says Mayise.
Mayise says while some incidents may be driven by crime and unemployment, there are concerns that others may be deliberate attempts to create service delivery failures ahead of the November local government elections.
Residents and businesses across the Durban south region are experiencing water supply outages due to algae in raw water. https://t.co/mFNFOQcm04 pic.twitter.com/KZtLAkLFLN
— SABC News (@SABCNews) February 14, 2026
“We think there’s high unemployment in the area; other factors might be factors that we’re not sure about, people trying to create a crisis, maybe for political reasons. Since the start of this year, we have seen a spike in cases of vandalism and tampering. In some cases, it’s not vandalism but tampering with infrastructure so that there are outages like you have seen here leading up to the protest; it was just a combination of vandalism and tampering with valves,” he adds.
For residents, the consequences are severe. Many are left without water for days at a time, affecting schools, households and basic sanitation.
“It’s affecting us. The children are not going to school. On Monday, the children here and the neighbours’ children did not go to school, and if they go, they are released early because there is no water at all,” says a resident.
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Residents from Inanda, north of Durban, are calling on the government to close schools due to hygiene concerns over water shortages pic.twitter.com/Iu4anDoCDA— SABC News (@SABCNews) February 12, 2025
“When the water tankers come, I can’t go to them. I can only watch everyone till it gets finished. The only thing I can do is take the little money I have and ask the neighbours’ children to go and collect water for me. I use the little pension money I earn,” says another resident.
WATCH | Frustrated KwaXimba residents, west of Durban, have blockaded roads preventing access to the area over prolonged water shortages and electricity blackouts. The community say they’ve been without clean drinking water for some time now and have regular power cuts. pic.twitter.com/6pPw9nBuSK
— SABC News (@SABCNews) February 16, 2026
“The water problem started last month. This affected us a great deal. We have toilets inside our homes, but we can’t flush them properly. We can’t cook. Children don’t go to school, and we can’t do our washing,” says a resident.
The outages are also taking a toll on small businesses. Home baker Nokukhanyie Cele says lengthy disruptions have made it difficult to earn an income and support her family.
“Unfortunately, for the past three or six months, it has been quite hectic because there was a time when we stayed approximately three months without water. As a baker, as a person who is working in baking and I work from home, I was very affected because how do I bake, do the dishes? I have kids at home, so you can imagine how frustrating that can be. It’s very bad because with the economy, we just have to survive from hand to mouth. It’s just been hard,” says Cele.
The municipality appealed to residents to report suspicious activities and help protect public infrastructure, warning that continued vandalism threatens both service delivery and public confidence.
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