Tshwane’s Water Failures in Bronkhorstspruit

Statement by Ald Cilliers Brink – DA Tshwane Mayoral Candidate:

The unfolding public health crisis in Bronkhorstspruit, where up to 160 cases of diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal illnesses have been reported, demands urgent action to protect lives. Our thoughts are with the affected residents and their families, and we wish those receiving treatment a speedy recovery.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has received alarming information from a whistleblower that the Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Plant has allegedly been operating without chlorine treatment for the past three weeks.

If confirmed, this would raise serious concerns about the safety of the drinking water supplied to thousands of residents in Bronkhorstspruit, Zithobeni, Ekangala and surrounding communities.

While the cause of the reported illnesses has not yet been established, these allegations raise serious questions about whether residents were exposed to a preventable public health risk.

Residents have complained about discoloured tap water for months. In September, the DA warned that the Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Plant was producing only 15 megalitres of water per day, despite having a design capacity of 54 megalitres.

So Mayor Nasiphi Moya and the ANC-ActionSA coalition cannot say they were never warned. They must now explain what they knew about the deteriorating condition of the treatment plant and why residents were not warned sooner about the potential risks to their drinking water.

Regulation 5(8) of the Compulsory National Water and Sanitation Services Standards, published under the Water Services Act, places a clear legal obligation on water services authorities to inform the public when drinking water may be unsafe.

The regulations require drinking-water quality advisory notices to be issued when there is reason to believe that water quality has been compromised, or when treatment processes fail to meet prescribed health standards. They further require the relevant water and health authorities to be notified within 12 hours of confirmation of an incident posing a health risk.

This is not optional. The law requires residents to be warned when their drinking water may pose a danger to their health.

The DA will therefore open a criminal case to request an investigation into whether City officials failed to comply with their legal obligations to warn the public about potentially unsafe drinking water.

Mayor Moya must answer three critical questions: How long has she known about the deteriorating condition of the treatment plant? Was she aware that chlorine treatment had stopped three weeks ago? And if the City knew that water quality could be compromised, why were residents not immediately informed?

The DA demands the immediate publication of water-quality test results, chlorine treatment records and all relevant operational reports. These records must be preserved and independently examined by the Department of Water and Sanitation, qualified water engineers and the health authorities investigating the outbreak.

While investigations continue, the immediate priority must be protecting residents. Safe drinking water must be made available to every affected community, alongside clear public-health advice and a recovery plan with firm deadlines for restoring the treatment plant.

The City says its tankers are supplying water sourced from Cullinan. Emergency water deliveries are necessary to protect residents, but this crisis must not become another opportunity for the water tanker mafia to profit from failing infrastructure. Tshwane residents cannot afford another R777 million water tanker bonanza.

The people of Bronkhorstspruit deserve safe drinking water, not another endless cycle of emergency measures and broken infrastructure.

The DA will pursue accountability wherever failures are uncovered and continue fighting to restore clean, reliable drinking water to every tap in Tshwane.