On 21 May 2023, the Gauteng Department of Health confirmed what residents of Hammanskraal had feared: a cholera outbreak was underway. Within days, the death toll would reach 23 in Hammanskraal alone, with the national toll climbing to 32 as cases spread to other provinces. Cholera — a disease that has been virtually eliminated in most of the world — was killing South Africans because their metro government could not maintain a wastewater treatment plant.
The Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW), operated by the City of Tshwane, sits upstream of Hammanskraal on the Apies River. For at least 15 years — since 2008 — the plant had been discharging partially treated or completely raw sewage into the river. This sewage-contaminated water flowed into the Leeukraal Dam, from which the Temba Water Treatment Works extracted water for Hammanskraal's taps. Residents were literally drinking water contaminated by the metro's own sewage.
The warnings had been explicit and repeated: - **2008:** Large quantities of raw sewage begin flowing into the Apies River from Rooiwal - **2013:** Residents protest — without clean water for two months - **2016:** City issues R2 billion tender for water cleanup - **2019 (August):** E. coli and nitrates confirmed in water tests - **2019 (October):** Water quality deteriorates sharply after Rooiwal complications - **2021 (October):** SAHRC finds Tshwane failing constitutional water obligation - **2023 (March):** Community approaches High Court to compel water provision - **2023 (May 21):** Cholera outbreak declared — 23 dead in Hammanskraal
Every sphere of government knew. The SAHRC had specifically found the City of Tshwane in breach of its constitutional obligation. E. coli had been confirmed in the water supply four years earlier. Nothing was done until people started dying.
President Ramaphosa personally visited the dilapidated Rooiwal plant in June 2023 and was reportedly "shocked" by its condition. A R4 billion upgrade was announced: - Phase 1: September 2023 – November 2024 (existing repairs) - Phase 2: October 2024 – June 2025 (capacity upgrade) - Phase 3: July 2024 – June 2026 (additional capacity)
The City of Tshwane allocated R450 million over three financial years. But the upgrade remains incomplete, and residents continue to rely on water tankers.
Hammanskraal is the ultimate accountability case. Twenty-three people died of a preventable, treatable, 19th-century disease because a 21st-century metropolitan government — with a multi-billion rand budget — could not maintain a wastewater plant for 15 years while every oversight body in the country watched.