By Bhekizenzo Zonele
Johannesburg residents took to the streets of Melville on Wednesday morning to protest against prolonged water shortages, as demonstrations spread across the city just days before the 4 November local government elections.
Protesters gathered along 4th Avenue, carrying placards demanding accountability from the City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Water over persistent supply disruptions.
Residents said they had endured more than eight weeks of unreliable water supply, with some reporting that the problems dated back to February.
“This has been a crisis. It has been neglected and ignored, ” one protester said.
The demonstration comes as communities across Johannesburg prepare for further protests over the next two days.
The protesters in Melville accused the city of failing to provide lasting solutions to repeated outages. Some raised concerns about ageing infrastructure and questioned whether Johannesburg Water had sufficient qualified technical personnel to maintain its systems.
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Water shortages have also affected neighbouring communities, including Coronationville, Westbury and Westdene, with residents increasingly relying on buckets and storage tanks to secure water when supplies are available.
The disruptions have placed additional financial and emotional strain on households and businesses, particularly those unable to afford water storage facilities or alternative supplies.
WaterCAN executive director Dr Ferrial Adam said residents were becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of reliable water and uncertainty over when the system would stabilise.
“There is no hope of the system stabilising any time soon. The people hit by shortages are guaranteed no water. That is what we have been told… that this is just going to happen and we must expect it. I do not think that is good enough anymore ” Adam told eNCA.
She warned that the crisis was particularly severe for households unable to purchase additional water and small businesses dependent on a reliable municipal supply.
“People who cannot afford to buy water are stuck. They cannot do anything. Small businesses cannot function without water and not everyone can afford a backup, she said.
More protests planned
On Thursday, the Water Crisis Committee will organise a demonstration at the corner of Queen Street and Albertina Sisulu Road in Kensington, with residents from Observatory, Bez Valley, Bertrams, Judith’s Paarl, Yeoville, Berea and surrounding neighbourhoods expected to participate.
The protest, scheduled from 5pm to 7pm, will extend along Albertina Sisulu Road and Langermann Drive.
Organisers are demanding emergency water deliveries, clear restoration timelines and repairs to the infrastructure responsible for repeated outages. They have called for peaceful action without political party branding.
A further protest is scheduled for Friday, 30 October, along Jan Smuts Avenue between Loch Avenue and Seymour Road in Parktown West, from 7am to 9am.
Using the slogan “Weeks Dry. ZERO Answers”, residents are demanding accountability and a recovery plan to restore reliable municipal water supplies.
The demonstrations follow months of recurring disruptions across Johannesburg, including areas served by the troubled Commando water supply system, which has struggled with low reservoir levels and unreliable distribution.
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Residents from Mayfair, Crosby and surrounding neighbourhoods protested outside Brixton Police Station on Saturday, 24 October, following prolonged outages.
Water shortages extend to Joburg south
Water supply problems have also affected Johannesburg’s southern suburbs, including Robertsham, Booysens, Evans Park and Winchester Hills, which depend on the Crown Gardens reservoir and tower network.
Residents in these communities have raised concerns about recurring outages and questioned Johannesburg Water’s ability to maintain infrastructure and prevent water losses.
The Xavier area, near Robertsham and Ormonde, is another focal point for community frustration over water supply, with a protest set to take place on Wednesday at 5pm at the corner of Xavier and Rifle Range.
Lesedi water crisis
Meanwhile, WaterCAN has demanded urgent answers from Lesedi Local Municipality, Rand Water and the National Water Crisis Committee, known as Watercom, over persistent shortages affecting communities including Rensburg, Ratanda and Heidelberg.
In an open letter, Adam questioned whether Rand Water had again restricted bulk supplies to Lesedi following a 20% reduction imposed in June because of unpaid municipal debt. The restriction was suspended in July following government intervention.
“Earlier this month WaterCAN received reports that more than 800 homes in Rensburg were without water for several days. But Rensburg was not experiencing these problems in isolation,” Adam wrote.
The organisation also cited a municipal notice issued on 12 October indicating that three of Lesedi’s four reservoirs were at approximately 10% capacity.
“This is a serious water-supply emergency,” Adam said in the letter.
“It also raises an unavoidable question: has Rand Water again reduced, restricted or throttled the volume or pressure of bulk water supplied to Lesedi?”
WaterCAN has demanded details of Lesedi’s outstanding debt, actual bulk-water volumes and pressures, and the implementation of a September agreement intended to stabilise supply.
Adam said the continued lack of transparency was deeply concerning, particularly as residents struggled to understand why their water supply remained unreliable.
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“Publishing a notice informing residents that reservoirs are low or that an outage has occurred may alert communities to an immediate problem. It does not answer the more important questions of why it is happening, where the failure lies, who is responsible and what is being done to prevent it from recurring.”
