There is something profoundly wrong with a municipality that can supply water without chlorination for three weeks without preventing it or, at the very least, warning residents.
More troubling is the possibility that those entrusted with preventing such failures may remain in their positions long after the politicians held responsible have been voted out of office.
The Bronkhorstspruit water crisis raises precisely this concern.
The Department of Water and Sanitation established that the Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works supplied water without chlorination between 24 September and 14 October. The plant drew water from a sewage-polluted river, while parts of its treatment infrastructure were defective.
Residents were not warned promptly. Between 7 and 18 October, 408 cases of gastrointestinal illness had been reported, most involving children younger than four. By 21 October, the reported number had risen to 433.
Former Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink and the Democratic Alliance have pursued criminal action, while the Economic Freedom Fighters have announced similar action against Executive Mayor Nasiphi Moya and City Manager Johann Mettler.
Moya has acknowledged municipal negligence and accepted political responsibility.
With local government elections scheduled for 4 November, the crisis has acquired an electoral dimension. Opposition parties are entitled to demand accountability. But accountability requires more than identifying the most prominent politician available for blame.
Municipalities employ engineers, technicians and professional managers because essential services require specialised knowledge and continuous administration. Their responsibilities neither originate in elections nor disappear when political leadership changes.
Section 55 of the Municipal Systems Act assigns responsibility for municipal administration, service delivery and employee discipline to the municipal manager. Section 56 of the Municipal Structures Act provides for the executive mayor’s political and strategic responsibilities, including identifying municipal priorities and overseeing service provision.
A mayor cannot reasonably be expected to inspect chlorine inventories every morning. She can, however, be expected to exercise effective oversight, ensure that serious risks are appropriately escalated and respond when failures become known.
Similarly, municipal employees cannot escape responsibility for neglecting their duties merely because a politician has accepted responsibility for the institution.
Political accountability operates publicly and periodically through elections. Administrative accountability must operate continuously through supervision, performance management, disciplinary procedures and enforceable professional standards. When these mechanisms fail, elections become an inadequate substitute for the daily discipline that effective government requires.
Who was responsible for ensuring an uninterrupted chlorine supply, and when was the shortage discovered? Who allowed water distribution to continue without adequate treatment? Was the problem reported to senior management and political leadership, particularly the Utilities MMC and Executive Mayor? If so, when, and what action followed? If not, who failed to escalate it?
These questions matter because Moya maintains that political leadership was not informed promptly. That account deserves examination against internal correspondence, operational reports and reporting procedures, rather than automatic acceptance or dismissal.
The Department of Water and Sanitation has commissioned an independent Water Research Commission investigation, with findings expected on 28 October. Its findings should inform further inquiries into administrative failures and individual responsibility.
Where serious negligence or misconduct is established, dismissal should follow where legally justified. But dismissing employees while leaving defective management systems untouched would accomplish little.
Tshwane’s coalition arrangements also warrant consideration.
The ANC’s Molatelo Mashola was reported to have taken over as MMC for Utility Services in August, replacing fellow ANC councillor Frans Boshielo. The EFF’s Tshegofatso Mashabela serves as MMC for Health Services, while the party’s Obakeng Ramabodu holds the Environment and Agriculture Management portfolio.
These portfolios carry different responsibilities. Utility Services has direct oversight relevance to municipal water treatment and supply, Health Services to the public-health response, and Environment and Agriculture Management to broader environmental concerns.
The investigation should therefore establish what information reached the relevant political office-bearers, when they received it and what action followed.
Holding a portfolio does not establish negligence, just as occupying the mayoral office does not establish personal culpability for every operational failure. Responsibility must be determined by the authority exercised, information available and action taken.
There is also an instructive historical parallel.
In May 2023, during Brink’s mayoralty, Hammanskraal experienced a devastating cholera outbreak amid longstanding water and sanitation failures. ActionSA has invoked that episode in challenging his criticism of the current administration.
However, Rooiwal’s deterioration preceded Brink’s mayoralty, and an independent investigation could not conclusively establish the outbreak’s original source.
It would therefore be unreasonable to conclude that Brink personally caused those deaths merely because he was mayor. The same standard must apply to Moya.
Both must answer for shortcomings in political oversight without automatically being presumed personally culpable for every operational failure.
The municipal administration must nevertheless account for the failure to warn residents, particularly since the Water Services Act and its accompanying regulations already require public warnings when drinking water poses a health risk.
Ultimately, an election can remove a mayor. It cannot dismiss a negligent official, repair a broken reporting system or establish why a warning was ignored. Those tasks require institutions capable of enforcing responsibility between elections.
The people of Bronkhorstspruit deserve to know who failed in their duties, what consequences will follow and how another disaster will be prevented.
Until South Africa takes administrative accountability as seriously as political accountability, changing governments will remain an uncertain remedy for failing municipalities.
[Image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/rusty-outdoor-water-faucet-dripping-close-up-34158878/]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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