PRETORIA, 23 October 2025– Tshwane Mayor Nasiphi Moya has dismissed reports that the City of Tshwane spent R777 million on water tankers during the 2024/2025 financial year, describing the claims as misleading and inaccurate.
Addressing journalists in Pretoria on Thursday, Moya said the figure cited in a News24 report represented the total value of purchase orders issued, not the city’s actual expenditure.
“The verified figure, the actual expenditure for 2024–2025, is R610 million,” Moya said. “There is also R179 million in accruals from unpaid invoices in the 2023–2024 financial year, and R156 million in disputed invoices.”
She attributed the confusion to the leak of unverified internal figures by city officials, which she said had distorted public understanding of Tshwane’s finances.
According to Moya, the city’s spending on water tankers increased by 36% compared to the previous year. This, she explained, was largely due to a 50% rise in water outages and emergency maintenance by Rand Water, which cost the municipality about R75 million.
The mayor also cited the cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal, which required the city to provide emergency clean-water supplies worth R84 million. Additional tankering services for affected Rooiwal farmers amounted to R24 million.
Moya said the city has started phasing out water tankers to cut future costs and has introduced measures such as expanded access to fire hydrants to reduce dependency on emergency deliveries.
She acknowledged, however, that questions remain over whether the city obtained fair value for money. Investigations are under way to identify any irregularities or possible corruption in procurement, spending, and service delivery related to the water tankers programme.
