As President Cyril Ramaphosa was admitting to his government failing the people of cholera-hit Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, it emerged that 11 municipalities are facing criminal investigations for failing to submit plans to fix their water problems.
The department of water & sanitation opened criminal charges against 13 municipalities between 2018 and 2023.
A plea and sentence agreement have been reached with three municipalities – Rand West, Lekwa and Thaba Chweu,” said department of water & sanitation spokesperson Wisane Mavasa.
However, Rand West in Randfontein on the West Rand has another case being investigated against it.
“Criminal charges referred in the [interim] Green Drop Watch Report are part of regulatory actions the department has taken against water services authorities for various infringements of the National Water Act (NWA), including failure to submit and implement corrective action plans, among others,” said Mavasa.
“The department of water & sanitation laid criminal charges against those municipalities, accusing them of failing to comply with a directive issued to submit corrective action plans as well as unlawfully and intentionally or negligently commit any act or omission which pollutes or is likely to pollute a water resource.
“The department goes through various actions before opening criminal cases against local governments, as required by the Constitution. Where these cases predate the Green Drop 2022 report, the further noncompliance of failure to submit an action plan is added to the investigation.
The municipalities are: Moqhaka local municipality (Kroonstad) and Ngwathe (Parys) in the Free State, Tshwane (Klipgat), Rand West (Khutsong and Fochville) and Merafong (Wedela and Welverdiend) in Gauteng, Sekhukhune district (Dennilton) and Mogalakwena (Mokopane) in Limpopo, Mpumalanga's Emalahleni (Thubelihle), Msukaligwa (Ermelo) and Dipaliseng (Balfour) and in the Western Cape, Kannaland municipality (Zoar).
Yesterday, Ramaphosa visited Hammanskraal and the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant.
During his address to the community, he apologised for the water in area not meeting their expectations.
More than 20 people died due to the outbreak in the area.
“We are sorry that it has taken the deaths of the number of people even though we haven't confirmed the source of the deaths. But what doesn’t sit well is that the water is not meeting your expectations. We are now going to put this right.
“The City of Tshwane is going to make sure that clean water is made available through water tankers. Revamping and expanding Rooiwal is going to take three years.”
According to the Green Drop Watch Report, not only are municipalities failing to submit action plans, but others failed to supply the water quality data to the department of water and sanitation, and also failed to provide evidence that they have been testing their water quality, the department revealed.
The department had issued a noncompliance notice to those municipalities, instructing them to issue advisory notices to residents that their water might not be safe to drink if it has not been properly tested.
Obi Matlaila, attorney and lecturer at the University of Limpopo, told Sowetan in most cases the charges would be laid against the mayor and the municipal manager.
“The charges are against the person who now holds the position as they are responsible for the administration of that particular office.
“Even if the crime happened a long time ago, when you assume office, you take responsibility of that particular office. It doesn't matter who is there. When you lay a charge against a municipality and that municipality is found guilty, the only thing they can impose is a sentence of a fine or compensation.”
Ramaphosa said when he visited Rooiwal, which he said was built in 1950, he found it had not been maintained up to the right standards for quite some time.
He said they found rusted pipes and where water was supposed to be cleaned the machines did not work properly.
“It shows that there are many problems there,” Ramaphosa said.
He said he was also informed that instead of the municipality getting R60m a year to maintain Rooiwal, they were only given R14m, adding that the municipality was told in previous years by national government to maintain Rooiwal but failed to do so.
“This is the problem I have noticed that what should have been done has not been done. When the levels of government do not work together it leads to a disaster.
“Yes, the municipality did try within its own capability to find the people to repair and extend. They even issued tenders, but the work was only done up to 60% – with the tender of [R292m] having had to be cancelled because of irregularities.
“These tenders are getting us into trouble because those who do the tenders fight among , themselves for money and in the end the people suffer.”
As Ramaphosa was speaking, Tshwane's group head of utility services Stephens Notoane, who is facing a disciplinary hearing for his involvement in the awarding of the tender to Edwin Sodi’s consortium – Blackhead Consulting and NJR Projects – stood a few metres away from him, with a bottle of water in hand.
Sodi worked with CMS Water Engineering on the project.
Notoane was also seen standing behind Ramaphosa as he did media interviews.
Had they completed the project, the quality of drinking water in Hammanskraal would have been safe to drink and possibly averted the cholera outbreak.
chabalalaj@sowetan.co.za
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