Note to Editors: Please find an English soundbite by Cllr Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku here
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Johannesburg warns the Executive Mayor of Johannesburg, Cllr Dada Morero, against trivialising the current water crisis the City is facing. In this spirit, we back the call for a full parliamentary inquiry into Gauteng’s water crisis.
This issue must be escalated to the national legislature, and we urge Executive Mayor Morero to take this call for accountability seriously.
On 11 November 2024 in a joint Statement between the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and the Minister of Water, and the subsequent press briefing by Joburg Water on 28 November 2024, Joburg Water unveiled their response to the water crisis in the City. It would seem that this was yet another talk shop.
In both the statement and briefing they committed to:
- An increased panel of contractors to ensure a 24 – 48 hour response time to water leaks including sewer leaks;
- An increased number of response teams on weekends to uphold the 24 – 48 hour response time;
- An increase in the number of water trucks;
- An increase in the number of trucks to respond to water and sewer leak repairs;
- Throttling of water supply between 9 pm and 4 am to enable water reservoirs to recover overnight and;
- Accelerating leak detection in order to respond to leaks quicker.
The City has not been able to stick to this response plan, some would even argue that the situation has only worsened since these commitments were made, for example:
- Ward councillors have had to beg for water tankers for over 48 hours when water in their communities was cut. In some cases councillors have driven to water depots, to fetch water tankers;
- We have seen sewer leaks take up to 7 days to be repaired, and in some cases raw sewerage has flooded into people’s yards causing major sanitation issues;
- Burst pipes spew water for days, damaging other critical infrastructure like roads in the process;
- Newclare and Westbury residents resorted to protest action, and called a meeting with the Speaker after not having water for weeks;
- Some Residents in Joburg South have been without water for months, while serious questions are being raised around the safety of water supply to old age homes; and finally
- The Constitutional Court and the Johannesburg High Court have had to shut their doors due to water disruption.
The commitments made by the CoJ, alongside Joburg Water, are not worth the paper they are written on. As a party that believes in transparency, accountability, constitutionalism and the rule of law, we are looking at all options to hold the City of Joburg accountable for these human rights violations. They have bungled the handling of this water crisis, and it cannot be allowed to continue.