Thousands of Gauteng residents in Soweto, Roodepoort, Deep South, and parts of Mogale City have been left without water again due to the Rand Water bulk line planned maintenance.
No proper measures have been put in place to provide water to affected residents during the maintenance. While residents are suffering the Johannesburg Mayor and his executive member responsible for water remain silent.
Joburg Water says that the complexity of the maintenance work necessitated the pumping to the Eikenhof reservoir system to be temporarily shut down.
Furthermore, Lesedi and Merafong Local Municipalities are battling with the throttling of the water supply by Rand Water. The political leaders in these municipalities remain silent on how they intend to address the issue.
Residents pay for water and sanitation, yet municipalities fail to maintain water infrastructure. The municipalities also receive funding from the national government through the equitable share and the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG). Water entities and departments must be financially self-sustainable.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng will request all municipal managers across Gauteng to appear before the Provincial Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Committee in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to account for how grant funding is being spent.
A DA-led Gauteng provincial government would communicate the planned water infrastructure maintenance to its residents. We will ensure that water tankers are deployed to all affected areas so that no resident is left without water during maintenance.