The chairperson of the national assembly water and sanitation portfolio committee has lashed out at officials of the water and sanitation department and its entities for being too slow in encouraging black business with government.

At a session of the committee on Wednesday, ANC MP Mlungisi (Lulu) Johnson told top officials of the Water Research Commission, the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) and senior staff of the department including director general Margaret-Ann Diedricks that as far as he knew there was only one "white" company involved in supplying chemicals to water treatment plants.

While Johnson named the company – based in Kempton Park – privately afterwards, he told MPs that when a company had a monopoly over a service "they can be very arrogant". Companies which enjoyed a monopoly knew that if their products weren't used, they would have to be imported.

He said it was important for the various procurement and employment arms of the department to ensure that new black companies were encouraged to compete in the various elements of the water and sanitation department's activities.

Diedricks took up the chairperson's point but noted that promoting black industry was driven "largely by the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry)".

She acknowledged that in the water sector "and for the full value chain of the water sector... it is true... there has not been much transformation".

She reported that the department, which is responsible for dams and weirs, used "huge amounts of cement". In that sector there were "three or four big companies" which provided cement.

PUT PRESSURE

"[We] know the demographics of the ownerships of [those] companies," she said, noting that her department was aware that they "must put pressure on those commercial sectors to ensure transformation".

Her department would work jointly with dti and the Department of Economic Development to fast-track transformation.

James Ndlovu, Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority CEO, said about five or six black companies were benefiting from partnerships with "the big companies" in the game. One was involved in building a R300-million pipeline in KwaZulu-Natal.

Ndlovu said his entity was making sure that new black companies emerged and were involved in strategic partnerships - with bigger companies.

At the same time where dams were built, the TCTA encouraged the creation of "some sort of [localised] economy" built on tourism and aquaculture.

For example at the Berg River dam there were hiking trails. In Lesotho there was "a big fish[ing] business".

The development around the TCTA dams were earmarked to benefit communities which were displaced or those who were part of the construction of a dam, he reported.

The TCTA was originally mandated to build a delivery tunnel north of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, but it is also involved in water infrastructure delivery associated with this core mandate.

In addition to the Berg Water project, the TCTA was involved with various river projects including the Vaal, Olifants, Mooi-Mgeni, Mokolo and Crocodile.

It has also been mandated to intervene in the acid mine drainage problem in Gauteng.

In a corporate plan provided to MPs, the TCTA reported that R1.3-billion worth of business in the 2014/15 financial year had been directed to black empowered - and black women-led - companies.