Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites from Leanne De Jager MPL.
The collapse of the City of Tshwane’s wastewater management system has resulted in sewage pollution that poses a risk to the health of residents. This was revealed in the latest findings of the Department of Water and Sanitation’s 2025 Green Drop Report, which also showed that Tshwane’s Green Drop score plummeted from 82% in 2013 to 33.8% in 2025.
This is not a performance dip. This is a public health and environmental catastrophe.
The Green Drop Report monitors and evaluates the state of municipalities’ wastewater treatment facilities. The report has revealed poor performance across the city’s 16 sewage treatment plants, which has placed public health, rivers, groundwater, ecosystems, and agriculture at grave risk. Communities living near rivers like the Hennops, visibly foaming with poorly treated sewage, are paying the price every single day.
This decline did not happen overnight, but it is the direct result of years of neglect, financial mismanagement, and a failure of leadership.
The following systemic failures were identified in the report:
- Engineering capacity is significantly below requirements, with fewer than three qualified staff per plant compared to more than eight in Johannesburg.
- The metro has underspent its operations and maintenance budget by more than 20%,
- A criminal case has been lodged with the National Prosecuting Authority, and an investigation involving SAPS is underway – those responsible must be held to account.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng will table questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to the MEC for Environment, Ewan Botha, to determine what plans the provincial government has in place to address the problems with the wastewater treatment plants in Tshwane. We will also be engaging directly with the Department of Water and Sanitation to monitor the 60-day deadline for compliance and ensure that the remediation plan submitted by Tshwane is substantive, funded, and enforceable and is not a box-ticking exercise. Furthermore, we will call for a forensic investigation into the financial mismanagement of the water and sanitation budget.
The DA’s approach to water and sanitation governance is grounded in accountability, competence, and long-term investment in infrastructure.
A DA-led government in Tshwane and at the provincial level would professionalise plant management by immediately filling critical engineering and technical vacancies.
We would also restore staff-to-plan ratios to the minimum required standard. We would ring-fence the water and sanitation budget to prevent underspending and ensure every rand allocated to infrastructure maintenance is spent on infrastructure maintenance. A zero-tolerance policy on pollution, with regular independent audits of all 16 treatment works and real-time public reporting of performance scores, will be enforced. The upgrade of Rooiwal and other critical infrastructure projects will be fast-tracked, ensuring that multi-billion-rand commitments do not sit in feasibility-study limbo for another decade.