Eight days before South Africans vote for the people who run their municipalities, Bronkhorstspruit has given the country a clear picture of what happens when a municipality stops doing the basics. A water treatment plant ran short of chlorine, unsafe water went into people’s homes, and 833 people have now been treated for stomach illness. According to Sowetan, 328 of them are children aged four and younger.
The response this week has been loud. The accountability, so far, has been thin.
What happened
The City of Tshwane’s Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works supplies Zithobeni, Bronkhorstspruit, Dark City, Rethabiseng and Sokhulumi in Region 7. A joint government statement released on 19 October said health teams had been on site since 13 October after an unusual number of patients came in with cramps and diarrhoea. Tests by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases found Norovirus, Campylobacter and Shigella in patient samples, and Department of Water and Sanitation tests on 14 October found “extremely high levels of E. coli and total coliforms” in water leaving the plant and in two reservoirs.
At that stage the count was 408. By Monday, Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina put it at 833, with 27 new cases in the previous 24 hours. Three people remain in hospital and no deaths have been reported.
The cause is not in dispute. Sowetan reports the plant ran out of chlorine for several days in September and October. SABC News put it plainly: the City of Tshwane failed to chlorinate the water. President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking in Mamelodi, called it “a complete dereliction of the work and the duties that the municipality of Tshwane was supposed to be executing”, as IOL reported.
What is being done
The plant has been shut for cleaning and to restore its chlorine supply. Majodina says there is now enough chlorine for six to seven weeks, with Rand Water promising to procure more when stocks run low. Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya says 36 city tankers are running between 8am and 8pm, and the city has suspended the plant manager and ordered an external investigation into chlorine supply and procurement. Criminal cases have also been opened, Moya said.
The city has now also turned on private water tankers. Metro police will follow them to see where they draw their water and whether it has been tested, and unverified operators must stop until they are checked. Majodina suggested some of the newer cases may come from people storing old tap water or buying from private tankers.
The questions that matter
Three things need answers, and none of them is “who was the plant manager”.
First, the warning. Moya herself listed the failures her preliminary investigation flagged: the interruption of chlorine supplies, the alleged failure to escalate the risk, and the delay in warning residents. A plant does not run dry of chlorine without someone ordering it, someone noticing the stock running low, and someone deciding not to shut the works. Each of those is a person with a manager. Residents deserve a timeline showing when the city first knew, and why households were still drinking the water.
Second, procurement. Chlorine is not exotic. It is the most basic input a water works has. If the external probe into procurement finds a contract, payment or supplier problem, that points well above a single suspended official. The report should be made public, not summarised at a briefing.
Third, the wider system. Majodina says more than 90% of South Africa’s water is safe to drink, and that the incident has prompted a review of treatment plants. She also says water infrastructure needs R400bn and warned that Johannesburg could face a water crisis if leaks are not fixed. If the minister can name the size of the hole, voters can fairly ask which municipalities are closest to falling into it, and whether those plant-by-plant results will be published.
The election in the room
Moya was asked whether the crisis had damaged her name and campaign. “Worry less about the reputation and the campaign. We are dealing with something serious here,” she said. That is the right answer for this week. It does not change the fact that voters in Tshwane go to the polls on 4 November, and that this is exactly the kind of failure a council is elected to prevent.
Local government is not about slogans. It is chlorine in the tank, a phone call made on time, and a warning that reaches a mother before her toddler drinks from the tap. Bronkhorstspruit residents did not get those things. The investigations now under way should be judged on whether they say clearly who failed, and whether anyone above the plant gate carries the consequences.
Sources: Sowetan, SABC News, IOL and the joint statement by the ministries of health and water and sanitation, the Gauteng government and the City of Tshwane, linked above.