Court ruling on Rooiwal welcomed as Hammanskraal water woes continue
· Citizen
Though the City of Tshwane welcomes the judgment delivered by the Labour Court dismissing with costs an urgent application brought by officials implicated in the irregular Rooiwal tender award, residents and farmers still have no clean running water and rely on water tankers.
City of Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said a disciplinary committee found the five officials guilty in 2023 on one charge and sanctioned them by docking them one month’s salary.
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Court clears way for fresh disciplinary hearings
The city took the outcome on review to the Labour Court, claiming the sanction was too lenient.
“The Labour Court remitted the matter back to the disciplinary committee to be heard de novo by a different panel,” said Mashigo.
“The city added new charges against the implicated officials, based on the referrals by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU). The tender awarded to Blackhead Joint Venture was found by the High Court in Pretoria to be irregular and was set aside.
“Subsequently, the five officials launched an urgent court bid at the Labour Court to halt the intended disciplinary proceedings scheduled for June and July this year. The application was dismissed by the court last Friday.”
Mashigo said the court also recognised that the 2026 disciplinary proceedings were based on new evidence uncovered through the SIU.
ActionSA blames DA
ActionSA national chair Michael Beaumont blamed the DA, saying the awarding of the Rooiwal tender not only set back the efforts to resolve the Hammanskraal water crisis by years, it also contributed to the deaths of 47 people after a cholera outbreak in 2023.
Beaumont said under mayor Nasiphi Moya, the administration has taken steps to ensure those implicated will not be allowed near the levers of power again.
No ‘aid or assistance’
But Hammanskraal farmer Theunis Vogel said farmers’ livelihoods have been destroyed.
“There is no mention of aid or assistance regarding the Rooiwal plant, which is currently 75% non-operational and pumping sewage into the Apies River and farmers’ irrigation canals.
“Monthly meetings with the Rooiwal committee, led by Moya, ceased in December 2024 and, despite repeated requests, have not resumed,” he added.
Vogel said that investigations by the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment and the Green Scorpions found the Apies River and water from local boreholes unfit for human and agricultural use.
“We went to court in March 2023 and December 2025 because our water supply was cut from seven days a week to four, before it was restored to six days.”
However, Vogel said that since June contractors have been delivering water daily to rural areas.