R48 billion and still unfinished: MPs question ballooning costs of Giyani water project

Despite the delays, the department maintained that significant infrastructure had been delivered. Parliament’s water and sanitation portfolio committee heard on Tuesday that the long-running Giyani water intervention in Limpopo has cost far more than originally projected and remains incomplete more than a decade after it was meant to be finished, prompting sharp questioning from MPs about how the project’s budget spiralled so dramatically. The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) told the committee that the Giyani intervention began in earnest in 2021, when officials took steps to coordinate and accelerate work that had previously been poorly sequenced. “In 2021, DWS took a proactive step to really coordinate and structure the intervention so that we accelerate the intervention towards completion.” MPs question timeline and scale of delays DA MP Stephen Moore noted that the project’s history stretched back well over a decade, with the original deadline missed by years. “It started in 2014. It was supposed to be finished in 2017,” Moore said, adding that even the current phase remained far from done. “The actual second phase will only be completed – started in 2028 – over 10 years after it was meant to be finished.” Moore warned that the pattern of delay risked undermining public confidence in the department more broadly. “Almost every village we hear about tells us they get no support, but then they tell us actually no, there’s a borehole here. It just doesn’t work,” he said. “We know many of these projects are delayed.” Deputy Minister David Mahlobo, responding to the criticism, acknowledged the scale of the cost overrun directly. “We thought this was going to cost less than R100 million,” he told the committee. “Now we have spent more than R48 billion.” He said the money had gone toward transporting water “over kilometres and kilometres from one region to the other” to reach dozens of communities that had never had reliable supply. Department points to completed milestones Despite the delays, the department maintained that significant infrastructure had been delivered. Officials told the committee that the Nandoni pipeline, which carries raw water from the Nandoni Dam, was completed in December 2023. “The key Nandoni pipeline, which needed to provide the raw water from the Nandoni Dam – we put an effort to get that project completed. It was completed in December 2023.” MPs heard that the related treatment works had also since been finished. “The refurbishment and upgrading of the water treatment works so that the raw water can be treated was then refurbished and completed by December 2024.” On village connections, MPs were told that “the 24 villages are basically all complete,” and that the department is “99.5% complete on the connection of the 24 villages.” Funding shortfalls push remaining phases further out Officials said the department did not have sufficient funding to connect all remaining villages simultaneously, forcing the project into further sub-phases. “We do not have enough funding to implement all of the necessary connections and village projects in one go.” The department explained that the outstanding 31 villages had been split into two groups. “Phase 2A, which is the 15 villages, we are estimating site establishment imminently and completion of that project by December 2027,” the department said, “after which phase 2B will start in 2028.” It said upgrades to the water treatment works were also still in the planning phase to accommodate the growing number of connected villages, with construction “estimated to start still this year in October 2026.” MPs say cost and delay raise wasteful expenditure concerns Moore went further, questioning whether continuing to fund projects that risked falling into disrepair after handover amounted to poor use of public money. “I’m concerned whether it can even be spoken about potentially as wasteful expenditure,” he said, “because we’re building it and having to hand it over in a manner that we know it will fall apart.” Mahlobo maintained that despite the cost, the project represented meaningful progress for communities that had waited years for water. “As I speak right now, it is a story that we can say,” he said of the villages already connected, while acknowledging that “the experience of some communities and some businesses still remains a concern for this ministry.” The committee chairperson, Leon Basson, said members would follow up with written questions on the Giyani project’s remaining budget requirements and timeline, as part of ongoing oversight of the department’s intervention spending.