Labour Court clears way for fresh Rooiwal disciplinary hearings as Hammanskraal water crisis persists

The Labour Court has dismissed an urgent bid by officials implicated in the Rooiwal tender and remitted the matter for fresh disciplinary hearings, but residents and farmers in Hammanskraal continue to lack clean running water and rely on tankers.

Court ruling paves way for new hearings

City of Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said a disciplinary committee had found five officials guilty in 2023 on one charge and sanctioned them by docking one month’s salary. The city reviewed that outcome in the Labour Court, arguing the sanction was too lenient.

According to Mashigo, the Labour Court remitted the matter back to the disciplinary committee to be heard de novo by a different panel. Mashigo said the city added new charges against the implicated officials based on referrals by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

The five officials launched an urgent court application to halt intended disciplinary proceedings scheduled for June and July; the application was dismissed by the court last Friday, Mashigo said.

Irregular tender and political reaction

The tender awarded to Blackhead Joint Venture was found by the High Court in Pretoria to be irregular and was set aside, the city said.

ActionSA national chair Michael Beaumont blamed the DA, saying the awarding of the Rooiwal tender set back efforts to resolve the Hammanskraal water crisis and contributed to the deaths of 47 people after a cholera outbreak in 2023. Beaumont said the administration under mayor Nasiphi Moya has taken steps to ensure those implicated will not be allowed near the levers of power again.

Farmers and residents still without safe water

Despite the court outcome, Hammanskraal residents and farmers continue to lack clean running water and rely on water tankers, the city acknowledged.

Hammanskraal farmer Theunis Vogel said there is no mention of aid or assistance regarding the Rooiwal plant, which he said is 75% non-operational and pumping sewage into the Apies River and farmers’ irrigation canals. Vogel said monthly meetings with the Rooiwal committee, led by Moya, ceased in December 2024 and have not resumed despite repeated requests.

Vogel said 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.

Service interruptions and legal action

Vogel told the court that residents went to court in March 2023 and December 2025 because their water supply had been cut from seven days a week to four, before it was restored to six days.

He said that since June contractors have been delivering water daily to rural areas.

What happens next

The city’s decision to seek a review of the 2023 disciplinary sanction and to add new charges based on SIU referrals has led to the Labour Court ordering a fresh, de novo hearing by a different panel. The disciplinary process will proceed following the court’s dismissal of the officials’ urgent application.