A Durban man is believed to have been “blown apart” by an explosive jet of highly pressurised water, apparently while he was tampering with an air valve on an eThekwini Municipality main water pipeline.

While the exact circumstances of the incident are still under investigation, the SA Police Services have confirmed that an inquest docket was opened “after human body parts, a hand and a leg” were found near a main water pipeline chamber near Riverhorse Valley on 4 April 2024.

A council worker repairs damage to vandalised water and air valves in an underground chamber in Newlands East, Durban, on 4 April 2024. (Photo: Cllr Allen Peterson / Facebook)

Responding to queries from Daily Maverick, SAPS spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said: “Security officers had noticed that the water at the depot was flowing in an unusual manner and upon inspection, the body parts were found. It remains unknown at this stage how the body parts got into the pipeline and police investigations are ongoing.”

The police statement came after Daily Maverick received information from three separate sources about the discovery of a dismembered body in the immediate vicinity of vandalised municipal pipeline infrastructure in an underground chamber near the eThekwini Heart Hospital in Riverhorse Valley.

The damage to city infrastructure has led to extensive water supply interruptions in thousands of homes in the northern areas of Durban as police investigated the scene and engineers shut off a pipeline before repairing the damaged air valve.

Extreme pressure

It remains unclear whether the man was simply a scrap metal thief or whether he had a more sinister agenda.

A council source said the man appeared to have been trying to remove an air valve from a section of municipal water pipeline leading to a water storage reservoir in the Durban North area.

He explained that, unlike the low-pressure, gravity-fed water supplies flowing through domestic networks from municipal reservoirs, the water in trunk lines is pumped at extremely high pressure.

These trunk lines are also fitted with air valves that release air into the atmosphere at regular intervals. While no water is released from these valves during normal operations, if a valve was removed or tampered with without isolating it from normal high-pressure flows, the consequences were likely to be severe or fatal due to the explosive escape of highly pressurised water.

He also noted that precision engineering firms across the world use jets of high-pressure water to cut through thick sheets of steel or aluminium.

A concentrated jet of high-pressure water slices through a thick sheet of aluminium.

The incident first came to light after DA Ward 36 councillor Shontel de Boer posted a notice on a residents’ forum on 5 April, advising that a man had died after “two acts” of apparent sabotage on a main trunk line the previous day.

Fellow DA Ward 11 councillor Allen Peterson told Daily Maverick that he visited one of these sites on 4 April, where eThekwini staff were repairing damaged infrastructure in an underground chamber.

Peterson said there was speculation that this damage was caused by a scrap metal thief. However, a council worker at the scene told him that there was also damage to a second section of the same pipeline, and there was a delay in repairing the network because the SAPS Search and Rescue unit was investigating the discovery of a man’s dismembered body parts.

“I said: ‘Come again?’ … and he told me that they [police] were still looking for the other half of a man’s head.”

‘Serious water challenges’

Responding to our queries, eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said: “The municipality does not have the authority to pronounce on the cause of death in the event of any fatality because any determination of cause of death is subject to police investigation and pathologist reports.

“The municipality can confirm that the deceased was found dismembered on site by the South African Police Service where the air valve was found tampered and ultimately removed causing excessive water from the trunk main pipeline to flood the chamber.

“Engineers from the City’s Water and Sanitation Unit have stated that anyone inside the chamber will get seriously injured or probably die because of the high pressure in the pipeline. If there is any evidence required by the police from the municipality, we will cooperate fully in the investigation but will not do so through the media.

“The incident has caused serious water challenges because the northern aqueduct had to be shut down due to the incident and severity of the impact caused by the damaged air valve. As a result, communities in some parts of Umhlanga, Phoenix and Verulam are without water and the City is working around the clock to restore water supply to affected areas.” DM