Note to editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbite by Leanne De Jager MPL.
- More than 21 months after raw sewage first began flowing into the Moreleta Spruit near Murrayfield, the City of Tshwane has still not permanently repaired the collapsed sewer pipeline.
- This raw sewage endangers residents’ lives and prevents the natural fauna and flora in and around the river from flourishing.
- The leak started in December 2024 but was acknowledged by Tshwane in March 2025.
More than 21 months after raw sewage first began flowing into the Moreleta Spruit near Murrayfield, the City of Tshwane has still not permanently repaired the collapsed sewer pipeline responsible for the contamination. It has missed the deadlines it set for itself to get environmental authorisation to fix the problem. The dates the department put forward have now passed, and the City owes residents an explanation. This raw sewage endangers residents’ lives and prevents the natural fauna and flora in and around the river from flourishing.
The City says permanent construction cannot begin until it receives environmental authorisation. Damaris Holdings has been appointed to run the required Basic Assessment Process. That process set out clear milestones: a Draft Basic Assessment Report by 20 May 2026, public participation concluded the same day, a Comments and Responses Report by 30 May, and a Final Basic Assessment Report submitted to the competent authority by 10 June 2026.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng will table further questions to the MEC for Environment, Ewan Botha and the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Jacob Mamabolo, to determine why the timelines have not been met, whether any officials have been held accountable for not fixing the leak that is causing raw sewage to spill into the spruit and what interim measures have been put in place to curb the flow of raw sewage into the spruit.
The leak started in December 2024 but was acknowledged by Tshwane in March 2025. Ward 41 Councillor Ben Chapman first flagged the collapse after an embankment supporting the pipeline gave way. Attempted repairs failed, and a temporary bypass installed to reduce the flow was itself later damaged as the embankment continued to deteriorate.
See photos here, here, here and here.
While the City processes paperwork, raw sewage continues to violate the National Water Act, the National Environmental Management Act, and residents’ constitutional right to an environment not harmful to their health. It threatens groundwater and boreholes relied on by nearby households, and downstream pollution ultimately reaches the Hartbeesspruit system, the Pienaars River catchment and the Roodeplaat Dam.
This is not a new problem for the City of Tshwane. It follows the same pattern seen at Rooiwal and elsewhere in Gauteng: infrastructure fails, temporary fixes fail again, and residents are left waiting for a permanent solution while officials point to process.
Residents of Murrayfield and surrounding areas have waited long enough. The DA will continue to hold the City of Tshwane accountable until this leak is fixed. A DA government will ensure that issues such as raw sewage surfacing are addressed, and that immediate action is taken to fix the problem.