# Tshwane admits negligence after 408 fall ill in Bronkhorstspruit

An episode of [The Clement Manyathela Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1201147442), 20 Oct 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/5dcefa8e-00a9-4595-8ce1-a4ab0080f142/366c625b-e6db-4376-8e27-a6f300c8de6f/0b357620-3a39-4a48-a320-b4e90091fcef/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=4b2990fe-a25d-4dca-afbf-a6f300cfc2ae

Clement Manyathela speaks to Prof Anthony Turton, Emeritus Professor at the Centre for Environmental Management at University of Free State, about how a Water Treatment Plant runs out of chlorine, at the back of the City of Tshwane supplying unchlorinated water for three weeks without warning residents it was unsafe. The Clement Manyathela Show is broadcast on 702, a Johannesburg based talk radio station, weekdays from 09:00 to 12:00 (SA Time). Clement Manyathela starts his show each weekday on 702 at 9 am taking your calls and voice notes on his Open Line. In the second hour of his show, he unpacks, explains, and makes sense of the news of the day. Clement has several features in his third hour from 11 am that provide you with information to help and guide you through your daily life. As your morning friend, he tackles the serious as well as the light-hearted, on your behalf. Thank you for listening to a podcast from The Clement Manyathela Show. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 09:00 and 12:00 (SA Time) to The Clement Manyathela Show broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/XijPLtJ or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/p0gWuPE Subscribe to the 702 Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Your voice. Your questions.
[0:03] Speaker 2: Your morning radio with Clement Manyatella. This is 702.
[0:08] Speaker 3: So I told you we've got Professor Anthony Turton, who
[0:12] Speaker 3: is an emeritus professor at the Center for Environmental Management
[0:17] Speaker 3: at the University of the Free State, to come and
[0:19] Speaker 3: talk to us about these processes when it comes to
[0:23] Speaker 3: our water treatment plants. A few of you have asked
[0:26] Speaker 3: that we bring in an expert who can just explain
[0:29] Speaker 3: How does it really work? Because we now have over
[0:32] Speaker 3: 400 people that have fallen ill.
[0:36] Speaker 1: More than 400 cases of.
[0:37] Speaker 3: Gastrointestinal illness, including stomach cramps and diarrhea. Those cases have
[0:44] Speaker 3: been reported in Tuani's region 7, with most cases involving
[0:51] Speaker 3: children under the age of 4 between the 7th and
[0:55] Speaker 3: the 18th of October. So authorities have been saying that
[0:57] Speaker 3: the illnesses are linked to contaminated water from the plant,
[1:01] Speaker 3: which was not chlorinated between the 24th of September and
[1:04] Speaker 3: the 14th of October. Why was it not chlorinated? And
[1:09] Speaker 3: if it was clear that there were issues and problems
[1:13] Speaker 3: with the chlorine supplier resulting in the water from the
[1:17] Speaker 3: plant not being chlorinated, then why were the citizens allowed
[1:21] Speaker 3: to use it?
[1:23] Speaker 1: Why was there no warnings? Warning.
[1:26] Speaker 3: Professor Turton joins us now via Zoom to help us
[1:29] Speaker 3: understand how this works. Professor Turton, thank you for your time.
[1:31] Speaker 2: Good morning. Good morning to you and to the listeners.
[1:34] Speaker 2: Thank you for having me on air.
[1:36] Speaker 3: So let's just start with how water moves from the
[1:41] Speaker 3: river or dam where it's being taken to our taps
[1:45] Speaker 3: and when the chlorine process actually comes in.
[1:48] Speaker 1: Can you just simplify that for us, please?
[1:51] Speaker 2: Okay, so there are two questions there. I'm going to
[1:54] Speaker 2: deal with them separately.
[1:55] Speaker 4: So the first question is, how do we take water
[1:58] Speaker 4: from the river and then treat it to potable standards?
[2:03] Speaker 4: South Africa is a fundamentally water-constrained economy.
[2:06] Speaker 2: It always has been.
[2:07] Speaker 4: And therefore, the entire national water system has been designed
[2:12] Speaker 4: on an engineering model, and I'm going to use a
[2:14] Speaker 4: technical term now, known as an indirect reuse model.
[2:19] Speaker 2: And what indirect reuse means is.
[2:21] Speaker 4: That all water from sewage discharge points will eventually flow
[2:27] Speaker 4: into the nearest river and therefore it has to be
[2:30] Speaker 4: at a very high standard. The reason for this being
[2:34] Speaker 4: that that same water flows down the river to the
[2:37] Speaker 4: next municipality where it is then withdrawn from the river
[2:41] Speaker 4: and becomes drinking water.
[2:43] Speaker 2: So there are two different processes.
[2:44] Speaker 4: There's the sewage treatment process that has to be discharged
[2:48] Speaker 4: to a certain standard. That's the green drop reporting standard.
[2:52] Speaker 4: And then you get the potable water that comes out
[2:54] Speaker 4: of the same river that that nasty stuff's been.
[2:56] Speaker 2: Discharged into And that's called the Blue Drop.
[3:00] Speaker 4: So because the whole system has been engineered in this way,
[3:03] Speaker 4: the reason why they did it is because we have
[3:05] Speaker 4: to recycle water and people don't.
[3:08] Speaker 2: Like the idea of drinking sewage.
[3:10] Speaker 4: So what it means is that we have to discharge
[3:13] Speaker 4: the effluent at a very high quality into the river
[3:16] Speaker 4: because everybody's going to drink that water at a different
[3:19] Speaker 4: point in time. So basically all of South Africa recycles
[3:23] Speaker 4: wastewater in some way or other.
[3:26] Speaker 2: And we don't think about it. We don't talk about
[3:28] Speaker 2: it like that.
[3:28] Speaker 4: And that is why the management of our sewage works
[3:31] Speaker 4: is so terribly important. So that answers the first part
[3:35] Speaker 4: of the question, but it probably raises more questions than
[3:38] Speaker 4: it answers. The second part of the question is the
[3:41] Speaker 4: role of chlorine. Now, chlorine is a disinfectant. but its
[3:46] Speaker 4: role is only to come into the final treatment process.
[3:51] Speaker 4: So in other words, your primary treatment process is supposed
[3:55] Speaker 4: to clean up the water to a very, very high standard,
[3:58] Speaker 4: and only at the very, very end, the last step
[4:01] Speaker 4: of that process, is now to inject chlorine into the system,
[4:05] Speaker 4: and you do it either in the wastewater works where
[4:07] Speaker 4: before you discharge the treated sewage effluent back into the river,
[4:11] Speaker 4: there's a dosing point there, and there's another dosing point
[4:15] Speaker 4: at the final output of your water treatment plant like
[4:18] Speaker 4: red water, those sort of places. they will have a
[4:20] Speaker 4: final chlorine injection point. And the purpose of that chlorine
[4:26] Speaker 4: is to now remain functional throughout the duration of the
[4:31] Speaker 4: flow of that water through the piping system. The pipes
[4:34] Speaker 4: could be hundreds, even thousands of kilometers long. And therefore,
[4:37] Speaker 4: that chlorine has to remain residually active until it comes
[4:41] Speaker 4: out of the tap at the other end. So in
[4:42] Speaker 4: other words, in summary, the chlorine is to prevent contamination
[4:47] Speaker 4: of the water after it has really been treated to
[4:49] Speaker 4: drinking standards. It's not designed to take dirty water and
[4:54] Speaker 4: make it drinking. That's an important distinction I.
[4:56] Speaker 2: Need to make.
[4:57] Speaker 1: I see.
[4:59] Speaker 3: So what happens then when the water treatment plant runs
[5:04] Speaker 3: out of chlorine? Because What we're hearing from the city
[5:07] Speaker 3: of Tswane is that they were experiencing problems with its
[5:11] Speaker 3: chlorine supplier resulting in water from the plant not being
[5:15] Speaker 3: chlorinated between September 24th and October 14th. How are we
[5:19] Speaker 3: supposed to understand that?
[5:22] Speaker 4: Yes, okay, now the chlorine supply in South Africa has
[5:25] Speaker 4: been under pressure for some time. I don't know why,
[5:28] Speaker 4: but it is under pressure. There is only one bulk
[5:31] Speaker 4: supplier of chlorine in South Africa. It's in Kempton Park, Kloorkoop,
[5:37] Speaker 4: and they make all of the bulk chlorine that's used
[5:41] Speaker 4: in water treatment. They have got other little plants, one
[5:43] Speaker 4: in KZN and one or two other places, but basically
[5:46] Speaker 4: there's only one company that supplies chlorine in South Africa,
[5:50] Speaker 4: And that opens up a question now of their supply
[5:52] Speaker 4: chain and the national strategic risk that comes from only
[5:57] Speaker 4: having one supplier in the country. Because if there's a
[6:00] Speaker 4: problem in their one supply process or manufacturing process, then
[6:05] Speaker 4: there's no redundancy in the system. So that might be
[6:09] Speaker 4: a valuable thing to consider, having a second supplier as well,
[6:13] Speaker 4: you know, just to basically spread the risk around the system. Mm-hmm.
[6:18] Speaker 3: But when it runs out, what's supposed to be the
[6:21] Speaker 3: process that follows? Because I would imagine that when you
[6:26] Speaker 3: realize that, okay, we're having issues with the supplier, the
[6:30] Speaker 3: water is not chlorinated between 24th of September to the
[6:35] Speaker 3: 14th of October, then the next conversation then becomes, okay,
[6:40] Speaker 3: we have to warn the residents that the water has
[6:43] Speaker 3: not been chlorinated and should not be used for drinking, cooking,
[6:47] Speaker 3: or whatever else that may harm them, isn't that what
[6:50] Speaker 3: should be the process?
[6:52] Speaker 1: Because it looks like that was not followed here.
[6:56] Speaker 4: Yes, okay, so now we're getting into a legal institutional issue.
[7:01] Speaker 4: So let me just explain in layman terms what that's
[7:04] Speaker 4: all about. The National Water Act and the Water Services
[7:10] Speaker 4: Act is very explicit about a number of things, but
[7:15] Speaker 4: two of them are important. The one is the notion
[7:18] Speaker 4: of a water services authority, and the other one is
[7:21] Speaker 4: the notion of a water services provider. So a water
[7:25] Speaker 4: services authority is under legal and constitutional obligation to provide
[7:30] Speaker 4: water of a defined quality, defined price, defined pressure, in
[7:35] Speaker 4: a defined time and a defined place, those five things
[7:38] Speaker 4: make up water security. And that is the obligation of
[7:41] Speaker 4: the water services authority, which is typically a municipality. However,
[7:46] Speaker 4: the municipality does have the right to appoint an external
[7:50] Speaker 4: contractor if they wish. And that external contractor then becomes
[7:53] Speaker 4: a water services provider. So the provider and the authority
[7:57] Speaker 4: are two separate entities. But now it gets interesting because
[8:01] Speaker 4: the water services authority remains ultimately liable for the whole process.
[8:06] Speaker 4: So in other words, if there is a breakdown in
[8:08] Speaker 4: the system, if there's a human risk that comes out
[8:11] Speaker 4: of it, if there's a legal challenge over water quality
[8:14] Speaker 4: or whatever, it's always the water services authority that's ultimately
[8:19] Speaker 4: held accountable, but they can contractually tie in the water
[8:26] Speaker 4: services provider But then that comes down to a legal
[8:30] Speaker 4: contract that could be debated in the court of law.
[8:32] Speaker 4: But ultimately, the overall accountability for it will always remain
[8:37] Speaker 4: with the water services authority.
[8:38] Speaker 2: And that's a very important point to make.
[8:42] Speaker 3: Yeah. Okay. Just lastly then, just lastly, Prof, I'm trying
[8:48] Speaker 3: to understand then.
[8:52] Speaker 1: Who was supposed to issue the warnings.
[8:55] Speaker 3: Because the Tuani Metro says, well, we were not warned
[8:58] Speaker 3: by the officials. They didn't tell us about this water
[9:01] Speaker 3: that was not chlorinated and therefore we couldn't have issued warnings.
[9:05] Speaker 3: So clearly there's a communication breakdown here. There's someone at
[9:09] Speaker 3: the water plant perhaps who didn't communicate this. And as
[9:13] Speaker 3: a result, there was no warning and people started drinking
[9:16] Speaker 3: the water and now people are ill.
[9:19] Speaker 1: So how is that communication supposed to go?
[9:23] Speaker 4: Okay, so what you are dealing with now is what
[9:26] Speaker 4: you're going to have a lot more of in the
[9:27] Speaker 4: future because South Africa is now increasingly starting to talk
[9:31] Speaker 4: about public-private partnerships. And the future of water services in
[9:36] Speaker 4: South Africa is going to increasingly be in public-private partnerships.
[9:39] Speaker 4: So what you're seeing is the tip of the iceberg
[9:41] Speaker 4: now of what's coming towards us. So let's unpack that.
[9:44] Speaker 4: So the Water Services Authority will always remain liable. They're
[9:48] Speaker 4: the ultimate partner. They're the ultimate people that are responsible
[9:52] Speaker 4: for the delivery of the water services. Remember, water is
[9:55] Speaker 4: a basic human needs, a basic human right.
[9:58] Speaker 2: So in other words, they've got.
[10:00] Speaker 4: got certain obligations from the constitution that they have to meet. However,
[10:05] Speaker 4: they can contract it out. But now it comes down
[10:08] Speaker 4: to the quality of the contract and the service level,
[10:11] Speaker 4: the agreement that exists.
[10:13] Speaker 2: Has that been done?
[10:14] Speaker 4: Are the legal people that have drafted these things adequately
[10:19] Speaker 4: qualified and stuff like that? And then, of course, it
[10:21] Speaker 4: also comes down now to the fact that we know
[10:23] Speaker 4: in South Africa these things go out on tenders and
[10:26] Speaker 4: we know that the tender process is not– typically free
[10:29] Speaker 4: and fair. So now we start opening up the whole
[10:31] Speaker 4: can of worms about.
[10:33] Speaker 2: An unfair tendering process.
[10:35] Speaker 4: And was the tender awarded ultimately to the most technically
[10:41] Speaker 4: competent service provider? I don't know in this case, but
[10:45] Speaker 4: that would be something to look at with great scrutiny.
[10:49] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[10:50] Speaker 3: Prof, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for
[10:52] Speaker 3: coming through at such short notice. Professor Anthony Tertin, Emeritus
[10:56] Speaker 3: Professor at the Center for Environmental Management at the University
[11:00] Speaker 3: of Free State.
[11:01] Speaker 1: It's 6 now before 11.
[11:04] Speaker 3: 5 minutes before 11 o'clock. So still on this issue
[11:11] Speaker 3: in Tsuani and there are over 400 citizens that are
[11:15] Speaker 3: now ill because there were issues with the chlorine supplier
[11:19] Speaker 3: that resulted in the water from the plant not being chlorinated.
[11:23] Speaker 3: And people are now ill because also the metro failed
[11:26] Speaker 3: to communicate. Umphilo Maudwe is the Treasurer General for the
[11:30] Speaker 3: Economic Freedom Fighters. I see that they dropped a statement
[11:33] Speaker 3: not so long ago calling for the immediate resignation of
[11:36] Speaker 3: the Mayor of Tswane, Dr. Nassipi Moya, for failing to
[11:40] Speaker 3: provide residents with safe, reliable water.
[11:43] Speaker 1: Umphilo, thank you so much for speaking to us. Good morning.
[11:46] Speaker 5: Good morning to you, Clement. Good morning to the listeners
[11:48] Speaker 5: of 702.
[11:49] Speaker 1: The Mayor of Tswane says.
[11:52] Speaker 3: Yes, the buck stops with me, but the Water Services
[11:56] Speaker 3: Authority didn't communicate to her that there were issues with
[11:59] Speaker 3: the chlorine supplier.
[12:01] Speaker 1: And as a result, that's why citizens could not be warned.
[12:07] Speaker 5: No, no, no, no, no. We will never accept such
[12:09] Speaker 5: an explanation. She is the head of the city of
[12:13] Speaker 5: Twani politically. She ought to know what is happening in
[12:17] Speaker 5: her city if she really cares about the people of Twani. Clement,
[12:22] Speaker 5: here we're talking about a municipality, and that's what we've
[12:25] Speaker 5: been saying all along. We need to create state capacity.
[12:29] Speaker 5: There's never been a time, there will never be a
[12:32] Speaker 5: time where you run, you say people don't need water.
[12:36] Speaker 5: So water is something that you need every day. But also,
[12:40] Speaker 5: we should have learned with the crisis of Hamas girls.
[12:43] Speaker 5: where people died because of the same water that you
[12:46] Speaker 5: and I are talking about now in 2026. So it's
[12:50] Speaker 5: the same issue, just a different location, just the difference
[12:54] Speaker 5: of the timing. The mayor of Twane must take full
[12:59] Speaker 5: responsibility for her failure to protect the lives and the
[13:03] Speaker 5: livelihood of the people of Twane. That is her responsibility.
[13:07] Speaker 5: That is her obligation. And she ought to accept this failure.
[13:11] Speaker 5: You know, we're debating with her a week or two ago,
[13:14] Speaker 5: and she was saying, coming from her state of the
[13:18] Speaker 5: city address, that there's no crisis of water in the city.
[13:20] Speaker 5: And we're like, you can't make such a reckless statement
[13:25] Speaker 5: as the leader of, the political leader of this city. So,
[13:31] Speaker 5: men of the city must do the honorable thing, resign
[13:35] Speaker 5: with immediate effect, and take full accountability for what is happening.
[13:40] Speaker 5: We've always been saying, Why do you continue with the
[13:45] Speaker 5: tendering system? The tendering system is not working for our people.
[13:51] Speaker 5: It's just milking our city of the little money that
[13:54] Speaker 5: they have. Now I'm told that because of the price
[13:57] Speaker 5: of chlorine that has gone up, the city has been
[13:59] Speaker 5: unable to chlorinate water for the past three weeks. That's reckless.
[14:04] Speaker 5: That's irresponsible. And she goes on TV and says it
[14:08] Speaker 5: herself that it's because of that issue. The city must
[14:13] Speaker 5: have capacity to give people to the people of Swami.
[14:16] Speaker 5: That is what the city is obligated to do by
[14:19] Speaker 5: the constitution.
[14:20] Speaker 3: I see in your statement that you're saying you're also
[14:22] Speaker 3: going to lay criminal charges against.
[14:23] Speaker 1: Her as well?
[14:25] Speaker 4: Of course.
[14:26] Speaker 5: One o'clock today, 13 hours, two hours from now, we
[14:30] Speaker 5: will be at Broncos Parade laying a criminal case against
[14:33] Speaker 5: Nasipu Moya and then we'll also write to the Human
[14:36] Speaker 5: Rights Commission to investigate this issue and hold her to account.
[14:41] Speaker 4: Because If we.
[14:42] Speaker 5: Don't do that, Clement, this matter is just going to
[14:45] Speaker 5: be in the news. It will create a hype and
[14:47] Speaker 5: it will die. Just like the Hamas girl where people died.
[14:50] Speaker 5: And to this day, no one has been held to account. Fortunately,
[14:53] Speaker 5: I spoke about this when I was debating the SAFM
[14:57] Speaker 5: debate just last week. And I said, the sad part
[15:01] Speaker 5: is no one has been held to account and people
[15:04] Speaker 5: lost their lives. We started this issue at just 100 cases.
[15:09] Speaker 5: Now we are over 400 cases. This is kids, this
[15:12] Speaker 5: is young people whose lives are put at risk because
[15:16] Speaker 5: of irresponsible leadership that is at the head of the
[15:20] Speaker 5: city of Tuani.

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