Matjhiding — The Matjhiding in the Dr JS Moroka Local Municipality have been grappling with ongoing water shortages after a major pipe burst on the V3 bulk supply line in early October 2025, worsening years of unreliable access.
In August 2025, locals blocked roads in protest, demanding immediate action from the municipality. This is after years of complaints from residents about unreliable and safe water access.
Since 2016, the residents of Matshiding have not had access to clean water. Instead, they have been forced to rely on borehole water, which laboratory tests confirmed contains excessive fluoride. The contaminated water has already caused visible dental damage in children and poses long-term health risks, such as dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis.
Research by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and China Medical University warns that high fluoride levels in drinking water can not only damage teeth but also lower children’s Intelligence levels. Tests conducted by WaterLab in July 2025 confirmed that Matjhiding’s fluoride levels exceed safe standards.
Resident Thulisile Mahlangu says poor water quality has affected her 10-year-old daughter, whose teeth have turned brown (teeth decay).
“This issue happened before here in our community and then it was resolved for years until now when the age group of my child got affected,” she said.
Mahlangu added that life without water has become unbearable. Families who cannot afford water tanks fetch water from the nearest river for bathing and cooking. Others rely on households that have boreholes, paying 20 litres for R5 to drink.
“You will find families doing their laundry at the river and then taking the water back to their homestead to use for cleaning and cooking, others rely on those households that have boreholes, they buy 20 litres for R5 to drink,” she said.
Campaigner and activist Rina Lekoloane together with advocacy movement Amandla.mobi have launched an online petition over the lack of water supply and quality of water in Matjhiding.
The petition has gathered more than 300 signatures, out of the 400 needed to submit it to the municipality.
“This issue is very close to my heart because of my background and experience as a water process controller. I’ve seen how that lack of a proper water treatment plant affects people’s health and dignity. I’m committed to help raise community voices and push for accountability and change,” said Lekoloane.
She says this is not just about water, it’s about basic human rights, health and dignity. She accused the municipality of ignoring the crisis for nine years while conditions worsened.
Another resident, Thandy Mahlangu, says taps sometimes run dry for up to three weeks, forcing families to buy water from trucks that often deliver discoloured water to limited locations, sometimes in the middle of the night.
“It can take three weeks with no water or no updates, we end up buying water from a water truck and when the water comes you’ll find that it’s dirty,” she said.
She says municipal water tankers are sent to the area, but they stop only in certain sections, forcing others to buy water instead. The petition calls for the municipality to publish a clear plan and location for a water treatment plant by December 2025 to immediately provide safe drinking water through water tankers and to commit to building and completing the water treatment plant by the end of 2027 to make borehole water safe.
Municipal spokesperson Mmasabata Ramatsetse said that Matjhiding is supplied through the Weldevreden Water Treatment works (WWTW) in Kameelrivier through the Kamelrivier bulk line.
She says the demand is affected by factors such as low reduction in the area where the WWTW is located and frequent water bursts on the bulkline. Projects to replace the old asbestos pipelines with the PVC pipes have not yet started on that line as it is currently on Kulien and Bloedfontein bulklines.
“When there is an interruption, alternatively water is supplied through the water tankers to the communal tanks” she said, adding that only now the municipality has considered testing the quality of the water in the boreholes.
The results from the lab are expected to come on Monday, 03 November 2025, said Ramatsetse.
