Residents in a South African town forced to go 16 days without water from their taps

Water supply has been restored to affected areas in Mkhondo’s Ward 7 after some residents reportedly went 16 days straight without a single drop.

Mkhondo, also known as Piet Retief, is a town in southern Mpumalanga and serves as the municipal seat of the Mkhondo Local Municipality.

The town sits just west of the border between South Africa and Eswatini, and falls under the Gert Sibande District Municipality.

Mkhondo was founded in 1883 by the Voortrekkers, and was originally named in honour of the Voortrekker leader Piet Retief.

Retief and a delegation of 99 other Voortrekkers, including Retief’s son, were killed in 1838 by Zulu warriors under orders from their king Dingane over a failed land negotiation treaty.

In 1886, the inhabitants of the town declared independence as the Klein Vrystaat (Little Free State), with a population of 72 people at that time.

This republic existed until 1891, when it was incorporated into the South African Republic. The town later became a municipality in 1932.

Today, the town’s main economic activities centre around timber, paper, and wattle bark production, as well as mica, kaolin, and iron mining.

The town sits 1,251 metres above sea level, giving it a warm and temperate subtropical highland climate. The town receives an annual rainfall of approximately 1,000 mm.

The main tourist attraction in Mkhondo is the Dutch Reformed Church, which was designed by architect Gerard Moerdijk and built in 1921.

Former Minister of Arts and Culture Lulu Xingwana approved a state decision to rename Piet Retief to eMkhondo on 2 February 2010.

The name change proved controversial, with Afrikaner rights groups such as the Freedom Front Plus advocating for the restoration of the original name.

Mkhondo has also been dubbed “Mpumalanga’s new epicentre of political assassinations”, following a string of politically charged murders in the municipality.

In 2022, Sbonelo Mthembu accused former mayor Vusi Motha of assassinating ANC Gert Sibande and regional secretary Muzi Manyathi.

Mthembu was later assassinated while Motha was in the process of suing him for defamation of character.

Restoring water to Mkhondo

Residents of Mkhondo’s Ward 7 reported low water pressure and sporadic outages following work carried out by the municipality’s technical services team on 14 October.

The team had been tasked with repairing a burst pipe on Anema Street, and the municipality reported that the repairs were successfully completed on 19 October.

This affected residents of Kemp Street, Olivier Street, Vonbrandis Street, Engelbrecht Street, and Oos Street, with some residents reporting no water for up to 16 days.

This was despite numerous reassurances from the municipality that water supply would quickly return to normal after pressure had built up in the system.

Mkhondo Ward Councillor Irene Brussow wrote to the Municipal Manager, Mthandeni Mkhonza, requesting an urgent investigation into the cause of the prolonged water outage.

“The technical service team has failed to pinpoint the cause of the outage over the past twelve to thirteen days,” Brussow said on 27 October. “Water is not a luxury.”

“It is an essential municipal service, and households and businesses cannot reasonably be expected to plan their lives around when water is available in the municipality.”

Brussow called on Mkhonza to urgently act on the water outage and restore water supply to the affected areas by Thursday, 29 October 2026.

Brussow said she would intensify efforts to ensure the water supply was restored should the municipality fail to do so by this deadline.

Water was reportedly restored to the affected areas of Mkhondo on the 29 October deadline, thirteen days after residents first reported water supply shortages.

While supply was restored, a water quality advisory was issued on 27 October, advising Mkhondo residents that certain areas may experience discoloured water.

Residents have been urged to run the water until it is clear, while the municipality’s water and sanitation technical team investigates the matter and assesses water quality.