A water pump worth millions, once thought to be lost, has been sitting in plain sight—on the factory floor of a pump manufacturer in Benoni, Gauteng—for more than two years.
The specialised pump was commissioned to help ease Makhanda’s ongoing water shortages. But instead of being installed at the Howieson’s Poort pumping station, it has been gathering dust since early 2023 because it has never been fully paid for.
The manufacturer says the equipment is fully built and ready to use but won’t leave the premises until the outstanding bill is settled. What was meant to be a lifeline for residents has instead become a frustrating fixture in the factory, the subject of jokes among staff.
Municipal records show that officials believed the pump had been paid for but not delivered. A senior manager was later dismissed over irregular payments related to the project. Activists have since laid charges of fraud and corruption against local leadership, accusing them of failing to recover the municipality’s losses.
Meanwhile, Makhanda’s water crisis has continued. In the months leading up to the tender for this pump, the town suffered more than 100 outages. The Howieson’s Poort station, which supplies water to homes, hospitals, the prison, and the university, has long operated with just one functioning pump—leaving it highly vulnerable to breakdowns.
The situation is not unique to this pump. Other critical equipment sent out for repairs is still sitting in workshops because the municipality hasn’t paid the bills, leaving the water infrastructure fragile and residents at risk of prolonged shortages.
For now, the so-called “missing” pump remains far from Makhanda’s taps—visible to anyone visiting the Benoni factory, but out of reach for the community that needs it most.