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I note the article published by the Sunday Times yesterday concerning the longstanding operational challenges at the Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works and the recent water contamination crisis that has affected hundreds of residents.

As I acknowledged during Friday's briefing to Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Health, the City has experienced shortcomings in implementing certain commitments made to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) to rehabilitate the plant. I accepted responsibility on behalf of the City for these shortcomings, including the unacceptable interruption of chlorine supplies that contributed to the current crisis.

However, it is important to distinguish between the City's failure to achieve certain outcomes and the suggestion that the longstanding challenges at the plant were ignored or that no meaningful interventions were undertaken to address them.

Prioritising the rehabilitation of an inherited problem

The Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works has suffered from years of infrastructure deterioration, inadequate maintenance and underinvestment, resulting in recurring equipment failures, deteriorating raw-water quality and reduced production capacity.

The extent of these longstanding challenges was reflected in the Department of Water and Sanitation's 2023 Blue Drop Report, which recorded a score of just 42.3% for the Bronkhorstspruit Town Water Treatment Works, compared with 96.8% in 2014.

These findings demonstrate that the plant's operational challenges were already well established before the current administration assumed office in October 2024.

The challenges are further compounded by pollution from upstream sources, including water infrastructure and activities beyond the City's municipal boundaries. This means that rehabilitating the treatment works alone will not fully address the challenges unless the quality of the raw water entering the plant is also improved through coordinated interventions involving other responsible authorities.

From the outset, we recognised the need to rehabilitate the plant and restore its operational capacity. Bronkhorstspruit has been a recurring priority in the City's Service Delivery War Room, where the Water and Sanitation Business Unit has regularly reported on production constraints, equipment failures, maintenance requirements and progress with rehabilitation interventions.

In February 2026, the plant was specifically included in the City's Water Stabilisation Plan. At the time, it was producing approximately 28 megalitres per day against a design capacity of 54 megalitres, with significant challenges relating to raw-water quality and pumping infrastructure.

The plan identified interventions to restore pumping capacity, including the procurement of additional raw-water pumps and the commissioning of high-lift pumping equipment, supported by a budget allocation of R7.7 million.

On 31 March 2026, I publicly addressed these challenges during the launch of the Water Stabilisation Plan, specifically identifying the need to restore pumping capacity, replace filters and implement a structured recovery programme in coordination with DWS.

The City has also progressively increased capital allocations for the plant’s rehabilitation, from approximately R6 million in 2024/25 to R20.8 million in 2025/26 and R57 million in the current financial year, with a further R30 million planned for 2027/28 under the Medium-Term Revenue and Expenditure Framework (MTREF).

These interventions demonstrate that the challenges at Bronkhorstspruit were recognised, prioritised and actively addressed well before the current crisis.

Implementation challenges and administrative accountability

It is important to clarify that the remedial plan submitted to DWS was always intended as a longer-term rehabilitation programme requiring substantial investment and phased implementation. The deterioration of the plant over many years is such that its infrastructure and operational deficiencies cannot realistically be resolved within a matter of weeks or months.

The plan therefore provided for both immediate interventions to improve operational performance and longer-term measures to restore the plant's capacity and reliability. While the City has been working to accelerate these interventions, we acknowledge that certain short-term commitments were not achieved within the stated timeframes.

The City has been working within significant financial constraints, with competing infrastructure priorities across a municipality affected by years of underinvestment. Implementation has also been affected by operational funding limitations, shortages of critical technical personnel, procurement delays and unsuccessful tender processes. These are genuine challenges that have constrained the pace of rehabilitation.

Accelerating rehabilitation and restoring safe water

Our immediate priority remains protecting affected communities and accelerating the restoration of safe and reliable drinking water.

As part of our ongoing efforts to protect affected communities, the City will continue working with the Gauteng Department of Health through established intergovernmental structures to monitor reported cases of gastrointestinal illness and emerging public-health trends.

While clinics and hospitals in the affected areas fall under the provincial government, the City's Health Department will continue its community awareness campaigns, advising residents on precautions when using contaminated water, recognising symptoms of waterborne illnesses and seeking medical attention where necessary.

To strengthen the City's capacity to address these challenges, we have appointed Rand Water as the implementing agent for the rehabilitation of the Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works.

Rand Water has developed an intervention programme to restore the plant's operational capacity, including improvements to pumping and treatment systems, refurbishment of critical infrastructure, sludge removal and strengthened chemical-supply arrangements.

This builds on the rehabilitation work already initiated by the City, while bringing additional technical expertise and implementation capacity to accelerate the outstanding interventions.

At the same time, the City will continue engaging DWS and other relevant authorities to address the pollution affecting the raw-water abstraction points. These challenges require coordinated intervention across municipal boundaries to ensure that improvements at the treatment works are sustainable.

We expect the Rand Water programme to deliver measurable improvements within the coming weeks, with progress closely monitored to ensure that the necessary work is completed.

The City will continue working with the DWS, Rand Water and other relevant authorities to maintain safe alternative water supplies and ensure that the plant meets the required water-quality standards before normal supply is restored.

Establishing accountability and preventing future failures

While our immediate priority is restoring safe water, we must also establish why previous interventions fell short and how the failures contributing to the current crisis were allowed to occur. It is precisely for this reason that I have commissioned an independent external investigation into the Bronkhorstspruit water crisis.

While the political executive has maintained oversight of the City's water stabilisation programme, implementation rests with the administrative structures responsible for procurement, operations, maintenance and service delivery, which must also be held accountable for their performance.

The recent interruption of chlorine supplies represents a particularly serious and unacceptable failure of operational controls, highlighting the need to establish whether appropriate management and escalation procedures were followed. The preliminary investigation has already resulted in the suspension of the plant manager, pending further investigation.

The independent investigation will examine procurement, operations, management and communication, including the interruption of chlorine supplies, implementation of rehabilitation commitments, the handling of historical water-quality findings and associated public-health warnings, compliance with regulatory requirements, and the adequacy of internal controls and escalation procedures.

It will establish whether known risks and implementation challenges were appropriately addressed, examine the circumstances surrounding the water contamination and reported gastrointestinal illnesses, and determine where accountability lies.

Where negligence, misconduct or failures to discharge responsibilities are established, appropriate consequence management must follow.

The challenges at Bronkhorstspruit did not arise overnight, but their longstanding nature cannot justify allowing them to persist. While this administration has prioritised rehabilitation and committed substantial resources, we recognise that implementation has fallen short.

Our responsibility now is to ensure that the necessary improvements are delivered, that failures are properly investigated and addressed, and that residents can once again rely on a safe and sustainable water supply.

Issued by Tshwane Executive Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya