EThekwini municipality owes Durban plumbers hundreds of thousands of rands

Contractors under eThekwini water and sanitation gathered at the eThekwini Municipality water service training center at its Pinetown depot to demand answers. Photo: Tsoanelo Sefoloko

• About 60 water and sanitation contractors under the eThekwini Municpality met in Pinetown on Friday morning to demand answers regarding their late payments.
• They also took issue with the lack of transparency surrounding their contracts.
• The group had requested to meet municipal officials to discuss their concerns, but no one showed up.

Water and sanitation contractors gathered outside the water services depot in Pinetown around 7am on Friday morning to demand answers regarding payments owed to them by the eThekwini Municipality. By 10am, around 60 contractors were waiting for a municipal official to meet them, but none arrived.

The contractors are responsible for servicing sewerage systems and fixing burst water pipes in the municipality.

Late and outstanding payments have been an issue for months. In April, contractors downed tools, with some not paid since December 2025.

Contractors claim they are owed tens of thousands of rands and are struggling to pay their staff and put food on the table.

When the group picketed outside the department’s office last week, acting water and sanitation director Bavna Soni and deputy director Lungi Ngidi agreed to meet contractors to resolve the issue. But this never happened, the contractors told GroundUp.

Another meeting was then planned for 14 July, but when the contractors arrived, they were told Soni was no longer the acting director. (The municipality has failed to confirm this with GroundUp.)

All of the contractors we spoke to asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by the municipality. They said that earlier this year, the municipality changed its policy, requiring them to apply as managing contractors. But out of the 500 who applied, only five were appointed. The municipality had promised that these managing contractors would hire those who previously held contracts as subcontractors. However, this has not happened. Most of the protesting contractors have not had work with the municipality for months, a representative said.

The council also introduced a new payment system to fast-track payments, but the contractors say it only introduced more problems.

While some companies were paid, many contractors are still waiting. One contractor said he is owed R156,000, another said he has five outstanding invoices, totalling R250,000.

“The work being done is very technical, any upsets to the maintenance programme could cause further deterioration of the municipality’s already ailing water and sanitation infrastructure, said the contractor.

Questions about the status of the contractor’s employment and late payments were sent to spokesperson Luthando Ngubane. No response was received by the time of publication.

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