Water, debris, even weather blamed for Tshwane fuel contamination

Tshwane will institute further probes into how water and sediment entered its tanks, rendering the fuel therein unusable for service delivery operations.

Various Tshwane fuel depots in the CBD, Pretoria East and Centurion experienced contamination and the metro investigated the matter.

Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said lab tests revealed that the contamination was compounded by several causes.

“Tshwane ran lab tests on the depots, the source differs from one depot to another.”

He said tank at the Pretorius Park depot had been filled up with water.

“Further investigations are being carried out on the tank to check for possible existence of cracks.”

He said sediment was found in the Centurion depot fuel.

“Thus too, investigations are being carried-out on the tank.”

Mashigo said due largely to temperature changes, the Belle Ombre depot fuel density was altered.

He said the metro was however also awaiting the results of further tests at other depots, such as Waltloo.

He said the metro was still unable to quantify how much diesel and petrol was lost as a result of contamination.

“Tanks had varying stock at the time. The unused stock will be retained for further exploration.”

Mashigo said further no dent was placed on metro operations as a result  of 22 depots were still being able to supply its fleet with fuel.

“The fuel is supplied through other depots that are operational and therefore there is no disruption in services as vehicles are re-routed to the other 22 depots.”

Mashigo said previously it was the first time such a saga broke out in Tshwane and it was premature to blame the supplier or sabotage.

According to sources close to the metro, during the contamination, the metro’s 93 octane petrol, which is normally green turned blue.

They said a paraffin leak was first suspected.

The Bella Ombre petrol depot has approximately been out of service for about a month, due to the contamination.

The Tshwane staffers stressed that they could not see out operations because of the resulting fuel crisis.

They alleged that the situation is dire and Tshwane was not transparent about the extent of the problem.

The insiders said depots in Bella Ombre, Waltloo, Pretorius Park, Akasia, Bon Accord, Centurion, Soshanguve and Hammanskraal had no usable petrol.

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