Tshwane failed to provide clean water to Hammanskraal - Public Protector
Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka has found that the City of Tshwane had failed to supply the residents of Hammanskraal with water that is suitable for human consumption.
The Office of the Public Protector made adverse findings against the City of Tshwane, Gauteng Cooperative Governance and the Department of Water and Sanitation.
The report follows an investigation into the outbreak of the water-borne disease that claimed the lives of more than 20 people in the area north of Pretoria earlier this year.
According to the report, Hammanskraal residents do not have access to clean water due to the dysfunctional Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Works.
In recent years, the municipality has been unable to solve the myriad of issues plaguing the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plant.
In September, President Cyril Ramaphosa gave the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) the green light to investigate allegations of maladministration and corruption at the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and its refurbishment project at Rooiwal, valued at just over R290 million.
Some of the remedial action ordered by the Public Protector includes the Tshwane Municipal Manager being given 60 days to develop an implementation plan setting out the measures to upgrade and refurbish the Rooiwal plant.
"Submit the implementation plan to Tshwane Mayor for tabling before the council and to the MEC for Cooperative Governance in Gauteng for monitoring of implementation
"Set out measures to be taken by the City to address deficiencies and shortcomings at the Rooiwal plant, which result in water quality failures at the plant."
Tshwane Mayor Celliers Brink has been given 60 days to table a copy of the report through the Speaker for discussion.
Responding to the report, Brink said the disaster at the Rooiwaal plat could have been avoided if the plant had been upgraded 20 years ago.
"The Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Plant is hydraulically and organically overloaded, so it pollutes the Apies River and the downstream water supply. While the city cannot change what happened in the past, we can learn from it and take responsibility for redressing the problem.
"The remedial actions ordered by the Public Protector accords with what the city has already undertaken in partnership with the Department of Water and Sanitation."
"That partnership agreement is being monitored by the mayoral committee, and a full report in compliance with the Public Protector remedial actions will be tabled at the municipal Council before the end of this month,” he added.
The office also made findings and remedial actions against the Water and Sanitation Minister and the Gauteng Cooperative Governance MEC.
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