Tshwane sent Bronkhorstspruit three weeks of unchlorinated water drawn from a sewage-heavy river

Hundreds of people in communities around Bronkhorstspruit have reported gastrointestinal illness after the City of Tshwane supplied the area with unchlorinated water for three weeks, eNCA (YouTube) reported on Tuesday.

A subsequent investigation by the Department of Water and Sanitation found the water had been drawn from the Bronkhorstspruit River, which is heavily contaminated with sewage. The pollution was traced to a wastewater treatment works in the Victor Khanye municipality and to Tshwane’s own sewage pump stations.

The city has now resumed adding chlorine, a Tshwane official, Sha Phillips, confirmed. That does not make the taps safe yet. Residual water is still sitting in the reservoirs and pipes, and the system has to be flushed thoroughly before it clears. Residents have been told to keep avoiding the water for drinking, cleaning and washing, and to scrub out any containers used to store the contaminated supply with household detergent before refilling them.

Children have carried the heaviest share of the outbreak in the area east of Pretoria. Most patients are under the age of four.

Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi set out why the young are hit hardest. Small children have not yet built up the immunity adults acquire over years, he said, and hand-to-mouth behaviour means contamination on any surface reaches a child’s mouth before an adult’s. Dehydration follows quickly, because a child’s body mass to water ratio is not an adult’s. A single bout of diarrhoea can leave a small child dehydrated, and complications become an emergency.

The residents of Bronkhorstspruit are asking how it got this far. Three weeks of unchlorinated water reached their homes before the source was traced and the chlorine switched back on.

In other matters covered in the same bulletin, former deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya was denied bail. The magistrate held that the human trafficking charge against him stands, though the trial court must make the final determination on both the trafficking and rape allegations. Sibiya faces charges of rape, sexual grooming of a minor and human trafficking involving two teenage girls, all of which he denies. His legal team intends to appeal the bail decision in the High Court, and the National Prosecuting Authority said through spokesperson Kaiser Kganyago that it is ready to defend the ruling.

The bulletin also reported at least 43 people killed in suspected political attacks in the first nine months of this year, with evidence that the numbers spike around local government elections. Researcher Julian Rademeyer of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime linked the contestation for political positions to organised crime, including the sourcing of hitmen.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana presents the medium-term budget policy statement on Wednesday. Economist Duma Gqubule argued that Treasury and the Reserve Bank have failed on growth and jobs, citing average growth of 1.1% a year over 17 years against about 4.2% for emerging and developing countries, and an unemployment rate of 43.8%.

The broadcast also carried the murder trial of rapper Kiernan ‘AKA’ Forbes in the Durban High Court, where seven accused men have pleaded not guilty and a ballistic expert linked bullet casings from two shootings to one firearm. Former crime intelligence head Major General Mulangi Mphego was released on R5,000 bail after his arrest for unlawful possession of police-issue R5 and 9mm ammunition found at his Centurion home in July, in an investigation linked to the murder of Lieutenant General Xolani Fazzie. That case was postponed to 5 November.

On the sports field, the Proteas staged a comeback on the third day of the rain-affected second Test against Australia, with captain Temba Bavuma scoring a century and Marco Jansen making 85.