Residents of Ermelo and surrounding towns have been let down by the Msukaligwa municipality, which has largely ignored a court order to halt pollution from the local wastewater treatment works.

It's been nine months since the national custodian of South Africa's water resources dragged a local municipality to the high court, hoping to pull the handbrake on the prolonged tide of untreated sewage fouling river systems on the Mpumalanga Highveld.

Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu won the case in September, but the high hopes generated by the judge's clean-up directive appear to have been stillborn.

The pollution of the Vaal River catchment and other service delivery failures continue. Now communities in Ermelo and neighbouring towns are pushing for more drastic action to capture the attention of the Msukaligwa Local Municipality, which includes Breyten and Chrissiesmeer.

"A lot of people find it a little scary to take on the government. But we pay for municipal services, so it's not as if they are doing us a favour. We are not talking about burning tyres or buildings, but take away the money and see how fast they move," Durban businessman and municipal rates protest leader Asad Gaffar suggested at a public meeting at the Ermelo Inn on 5 June.

Gaffar, head of the eThekwini Ratepayers' Protest Movement, visited Ermelo at the invitation of the Msukaligwa Business and Community Forum, which was...