The Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality has reported a severe escalation in attacks on its water infrastructure by a coordinated syndicate, culminating in a shooting that left a municipal employee hospitalized.
The incident occurred at the Zeerust Waste Water Treatment Plant on Sunday, where a group of armed men accosted municipal security personnel. During the confrontation, a process controller was shot and wounded.
According to a municipal official on the scene, the attackers were intent on causing fatal harm. “They wanted to finish him. They tried to hit him on the chest, but he said he dived a little bit. Then they hit him here. The bullet was within his skin,” the official stated.
The injured employee was initially transported to Zeerust Hospital alongside three security officers who also sought assistance. However, due to the severity of his injuries, he was later transferred to a private hospital in Mahikeng.
A spokesperson for the municipality, Motiba, confirmed that the plant is a frequent target for vandals. “The vandalism that is always taking place here is relating to cables theft,” Motibaa said, noting similar incidents in August of this year and late last year. While theft is common, this attack marked a dangerous new development. “It is quite frequently happening here… but all the incident[s] that happened in the previous there was never such injury like where the gun was used,” Motiba added, though previous reports indicated the syndicates were armed.
The violent event has left municipal staff deeply traumatized. One employee, visibly shaken, expressed the collective fear now permeating the workplace: “As your colleague… what if they come again? What if tonight?… We’ll be shocked.”
The broader implications of such attacks were addressed by the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality Mayor, who condemned the violence and highlighted the threat to essential services.
“We have degenerated to a point where we are shooting unarmed professionals,” the Mayor said. “Who are we going to attract in our water and sanitation space? And if our workers work in fear of going to work because they are going to be shot, how are we going to sustain water and sanitation provision?”
The financial cost of repairing the damage is staggering. The Mayor revealed that the municipality has spent an estimated billion Rand, “and a little over a billion in the last year or three,” to fix vandalized infrastructure.
While the investigation is ongoing, the municipality believes that organized “water mafias” are involved in the systematic damage to water infrastructure across the Ngaka Modiri Molema region.
