Résumé
For many years, South Africa had represented a typical example of a hydrocracy. Following thedemocratic transition in South Africa, however, new policy paradigms emerged, supported by new political elitesfrom the ANC. A reform of the water policy was one of the priorities of the new Government, but with littleexperience in water management, they largely relied on 'international best practices' in the water sector,although some of these international principles did not perfectly fit the South African water sector landscape. Inparallel, a reform called 'transformation' took place across all public organisations with the aim of allowing publicadministrations to better reflect the racial components in South African society. As a result, civil engineers lostmost of their power within the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation (DWS). However, despite thesechanges, demand-side management has had difficulties in materializing on the ground. The paper aims atdiscussing the resilience of supply-side management within the Ministry, despite its new policy orientation. Usinga policy network concept, the paper shows that the supply-side approach still prevails today, due to theoutsourcing of most DWS tasks to consulting firms with whom DWS engineers have nourished a privilegedrelationship since the 1980s. The article uses the decision-making process around the Lesotho Highlands WaterProject (LHWP) Phase 2 as an emblematic case study to illustrate such developments. This policy network, whichhas enjoyed so much influence over DWS policies and daily activities, is now being contested. As a consequence,we argue that the fate of the LHWP Phase 2 is ultimately linked to a competition between this policy network anda political one.