DA questions MMC, Joburg Water after prolonged outages

Issued by Cllr Michael Crichton – DA Johannesburg Caucus Deputy Chairperson
08 Oct 2024 in Press Statements

For the past fives days and counting the residents that receive their water supply from the South Hills Water Tower, areas such as South Hills, Linmeyer, Risana, Tulisa Park, Moffarview, Parts of Oakdene and Parts Rosettenville, have not had any water running through their taps.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Johannesburg has taken this issue up with Johannesburg Water, but they have been vague at best with their explanation. They have informed us of poor supply coming from Rand Waters side and that there’s “high consumption”.

What is also of concern is that the South Hills water tower seems to be one of the worst affected water towers in terms of lengthy water outages in the South of Johannesburg and that also needs investigating. What is also of concern is that Rand Water’s Meyershill reservoir has been out of commission for the past two to three years.

We have been fighting this issue for four years now and we will continue to fight for our residents until there is a permanent solution to the prolonged water outages the community faces.  We will be submitting questions for the Member of the Mayoral Committee for Infrastructure, Councillor Jack Sekwaila to answer, we will submit a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application and we will be bringing a motion to Council demanding a full investigation into this crisis which will include but not be limited to engaging the National Government on a long-term solution.

The DA will always champion the rights of residents, especially whilst a uncaring government is at the head of the City of Johannesburg. We will hold those responsible for these disastrous outages to account.