City of Tshwane must answer for contaminated water that left hundreds ill
20 October 2026
For immediate release
MISA, the Motor Industry Staff Association, demands accountability from the City of Tshwane after 408 people fell ill from gastrointestinal infections linked to contaminated drinking water in Bronkhorstspruit and surrounding communities. Most of those affected were children under the age of four. No deaths have been reported.
A joint investigation by the Department of Water and Sanitation and the Department of Health found that the Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works distributed unchlorinated water between 24 September and 14 October due to failures in the city's chlorine supply. The untreated water was sourced from a river polluted by sewage.
Laboratory tests detected extremely high levels of E. coli, while the National Institute for Communicable Diseases identified norovirus, Campylobacter and Shigella in patient samples.
Equally alarming is the City's failure to warn residents. The Compulsory Standards for Water Services require municipalities to notify communities when water is unsafe for drinking, cooking, washing or bathing. Yet residents in Zithobeni, Dark City, Rethabiseng, Sokhulumi and Bronkhorstspruit continued using tap water because they were never informed of the risks.
Families are now paying the price for that failure. Working parents have been forced to buy safe drinking water while covering the costs of medical treatment for sick children and family members.
"Keeping residents in the dark about untreated water is a betrayal," says Martlé Keyter, Chief Executive Officer: Operations at MISA. "For three weeks, mothers bathed their babies and prepared meals with water the City had not made safe. Whether this was negligence or a deliberate failure to communicate, someone must be held accountable. Our children are not collateral damage."
MISA calls on the City of Tshwane to publicly account for this failure, take decisive action against those responsible, and ensure that residents are not billed for water that was unsafe to use. The municipality must also conduct ongoing water quality testing and publish the results until independent authorities confirm that the water is safe for consumption.
Issued by Sonja Carstens, Manager: MISA Media & Communication Department, on behalf of the Union. For media enquiries, contact Phakamile Hlubi-Majola on 083 367 6417 or email [email protected].
#PROUDLYMISA #MISALEADS #MISACARES #MISAONTHEMOVE #MISAFAMILY