Overview
- The Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works supplied unchlorinated water drawn from the polluted Bronkhorstspruit River between late September and mid‑October 2026, which reached households in Zithobeni, Rethabiseng, Dark City, Sokhulumi and Bronkhorstspruit.
- Health services treated hundreds for gastrointestinal illness with totals rising from 408 patients in early October to 833 by 26 October, including 328 children aged four and under.
- Laboratory tests found extremely high E. coli in water samples and detected norovirus, Campylobacter and Shigella in stool samples while no cholera bacteria were reported in the clinical tests.
- A DWS investigation blamed upstream sewage from Victor Khanye and malfunctioning Tshwane pump stations plus failed pumps and sand filters at the plant, and found the city did not warn residents that the water was unsafe; Mayor Nasiphi Moya has acknowledged negligence and ordered an external inquiry while the Public Protector opens a probe.
- Officials say the plant will be cleaned and chlorination restored and experts and rights advocates are pressing for routine plant‑level monitoring, a legal duty to warn residents when disinfection fails, and stronger regulatory action to protect the constitutional right to safe water.