Nkomazi Local Municipality in eastern Mpumalanga, near the Mozambique border, has become a case study in the weaponisation of water for political profit. Investigations revealed that councillors deliberately withhold water supply to communities — closing valves, delaying maintenance, failing to switch on pumps — and then profit by arranging tanker deliveries from politically connected suppliers at inflated prices.
The scheme follows the national water mafia pattern but with a particularly cynical twist: the people controlling the water supply are the same people profiting from its absence. Communities that should receive free basic water are instead paying inflated tanker prices, with the profits flowing to local politicians and their business associates.
A local politician who attempted to expose the scheme was shot — an act of violence that sent a chilling message to potential whistleblowers. The shooting has not resulted in convictions, and the water extortion continues. The municipality has been declared under financial distress, but this administrative designation has not translated into any meaningful change.
The Nkomazi water scheme represents corruption at its most visceral: officials who are constitutionally mandated to provide water instead weaponise it for personal enrichment, and use violence to silence those who resist.