Eastern Cape Business 2017 edition

Managing the region’s
water resources
How badly has the Eastern Cape been affected by drought and what is Amatola
Water doing to mitigate these effects?
Although the water sector has had a difficult time due to the prolonged drought, fortunately
Amatola Water’s area of supply has been blessed with sufficient rain and dam levels remained
full at between 95-100%. The water crisis has affected some areas in the Eastern Cape and those
municipalities are being guided by the Drought Disaster Plan in order to cope with the conditions.
Lefadi Makibinyane
Lefadi Makibinyane is the Chief Executive
Officer of Amatola Water. He joined Amatola
Water in February 2015 from the Consulting
Engineers South Africa (CESA), where he also
served as CEO.
Makibinyane is an accomplished engineer
and executive, having worked in various leadership
positions in both public and corporate
institutions, including the City of Tshwane
Metropolitan Municipality, Fieldstone Africa,
the Industrial Development Corporation of
South Africa (IDC), South African Breweries
(SAB) and SASOL, among others.
He holds an Honours Degree in Chemical
Engineering from the University of Teesside,
Middlesbrough, in the United Kingdom, a Post-
Graduate Certificate in Project Management
as well as Masters in Business Leadership from
the University of South Africa’s School of Business
Leadership, in Pretoria. He also serves
as a non-executive director on the Boards of
Rand Water, the Construction Industry Development
Board (CIDB), the Gauteng Partnership
Fund and also as a member of the
Presidential BBBEE Advisory Council.
Please describe the main highlights that Amatola Water achieved in the past
financial year.
We were very proud to be appointed as implementing agent for the Nooitgedacht/Coega lowlevel
project in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality as well as the Amathole dry
sanitation project. Ongoing projects where we effectively implemented strategic water and
sanitation schemes include the King Sabata Dalindyebo Presidential Intervention (water and
waste-water infrastructure upgrade), the Makana Right of Use (RoU) project, the Ndlambe
Regional Bulk Water Supply, the Nahoon-East Coast Bulk Supply Pipeline and the upgrades of
Amatola Water plants. In addition, we achieved:
• 98% compliance to SANS Class 1 potable water standards
• 100% assurance of supply to our customers
• 11.98% against a target of 12% with regard to production and network losses.
This minimised environmental, financial and social impacts of losses and unaccounted
for water.
In recording an 18% increase in revenue, we were also pleased to say that we supported
qualifying small enterprises, emerging micro-enterprises and black-owned businesses. A clean
audit was achieved.
What are some of the key challenges facing the utility’s successful operation in
the next few years?
Being geographically limited in terms of the Government Gazette of 1997 means it is difficult to
grow the business. However, when water crises happen we step in as per ministerial directives
as an implementing agent to develop infrastructure or to operate or maintain water treatment
works. This pushes up our operational costs, which are well above the national norm.
We support the long-term strategy of the Department of Water and Sanitation, namely the
Institutional Reform and Realignment (IRR) which includes the transfer of strategic and specific
assets to regional water boards such as Amatola Water.
Could you expand on the competition issues between water utilities and municipalities
as bulk water suppliers?
The competition that exists poses a long-term challenge to the implementation of the IRR
strategy, which seeks to establish regional water utilities to improve the scale and effectiveness
of water service delivery. As the only water board in the Eastern Cape, Amatola Water could best
serve by providing a bulk water service to the entire province. Municipalities would then be
able to focus on the water reticulation network and, in so doing, improve the quality of service
delivery to residential, industrial and commercial users.