Daily Maverick
Dailymaverick logo

South Africa

South Africa, Newsdeck

Joburg mayor addresses the City’s response to water outages amid allegations of political sabotage

Joburg mayor addresses the City’s response to water outages amid allegations of political sabotage
Julia Evans
By Julia Evans
23 Feb 2025
Facebook
0
Joburg Mayor Dada Morero provided an update on Johannesburg’s water supply on Friday, 20 February 2025, outlining efforts to stabilise the system. He also addressed explosive allegations that recent water outages might have been politically orchestrated.

Before the rain hit this week, residents across Johannesburg battled the heat while their taps ran dry because of water outages throughout the city. The Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg even had to close temporarily last Thursday owing to the ongoing water shortage.

In response, Johannesburg Executive Mayor Dada Morero spoke to the media at Johannesburg Water’s head office in Newtown on Friday, 21 February, to address the water supply challenges and respond to serious allegations of political sabotage.

“The water supply status has normalised considerably, compared to last week Friday, 14 February,” Morero said at the briefing. “There may be a few areas that may still be experiencing no water, but this could be due to airlocks which our teams on the ground are attending.”



Cause of recent water cuts: multiple power failure


Johannesburg’s recent water shortages were triggered by a series of power failures, which severely disrupted Rand Water’s pump stations and left multiple municipalities without supply.

The crisis began on 10 and 11 February, when power failures affected Eikenhof and Zwartkopjes pump stations, reducing the City’s ability to pump water. 

Read more: Power failures exacerbate Joburg’s prolonged water shortages, fuelling public outrage

Last Tuesday, 11 February, a total supply failure (caused by the failure of Emfuleni Local Municipality’s transformer) occurred at Emfuleni power sub-station and affected Rand Water’s Vereeniging Water Treatment Plant,  which is entirely reliant on the municipality for power.

This triggered a knock-on effect, preventing water from being pumped through the system, depleting reservoirs and disrupting supply to multiple municipalities and direct customers. Areas affected included Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark, Sasolburg, Forest Hill, Yeoville, Benoni and Eikenhof, while municipalities such as Emfuleni, Metsimaholo, Ngwathe, Rustenburg, Rand West, Merafong and Mogale City, and the cities of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni also experienced disruptions.



Rand Water confirmed that power to its Vereeniging plant was restored within hours, but another outage later that night caused further disruptions.

“For reservoirs to recover, it takes eight to nine hours,” Rand Water told Daily Maverick. “Normal pressure depends on overall water consumption.”

Morero explained: “As we were sorting out the power failure, reservoir levels dropped, some to empty. Once the issue was fixed, we had to start pumping. 

“Unlike electricity, which you just can switch back on, water takes a few days to pump. We estimated it would take seven days to restore supply, and indeed, some areas got water back in three days, others in four, and so on.”

As the system began recovering, additional failures caused further setbacks:

  • 16 February: The Lethabo failure affected Zwartkopjes and Eikenhof pump stations;

  • 18 February: The Vereeniging incident had an impact on Eikenhof; and

  • 19 February: A City Power failure disrupted Eikenhof again.


These left reservoirs critically low, delaying normal supply restoration.

Johannesburg Water reported steady progress, with teams working to clear airlocks and restore full capacity. “Technical teams from Rand Water and Johannesburg Water are working hard to stabilise affected reservoirs and towers,” Morero said.

He added that extra teams have been approved to work on emergencies and backlogs, with plans to recruit fitters, welders and bricklayers to enhance maintenance capacity.

Johannesburg Water is also implementing water loss reduction measures, including:

  • Pressure-reducing valve (PRV) maintenance;

  • Establishing new pressure management zones;

  • Proactive leak detection; and

  • Enforcing water by-laws more aggressively.


Water throttling and high consumption


Since 8 November 2024, Johannesburg Water has been reducing water supply on a rotational basis to manage high consumption and aid system recovery. The City has expanded its list of restricted areas, including halting pumping to certain towers, to curb demand.

Morero reminded residents that Johannesburg remains under Level 1 water restrictions and warned that continued water wastage could lead to stricter measures.

“Customers are warned not to abuse water as this can lead to declaring Level 2 water restrictions,” Morero said.

“It has been raining heavily over the past few days, so it is hoped that customers took the opportunity to harvest rainwater and will continue to harvest as much rainwater as possible if the opportunity presents itself.

“Now more than ever, it is imperative that we change our habits when it comes to water use. We can all make a difference by introducing one small change a day,” he said.

When asked why the City is focusing on household consumption when a quarter of treated water is lost to leaks, Morero told Daily Maverick: “We’re saying it’s all problems – the leaks and also consumption. We can measure household usage via meters, so we’re asking residents to reduce water use while we address leaks. We’re raising funds to deal with them. It’s a two-way process.”

Water tanker tender case in court


Johannesburg Water is currently facing scrutiny over its decision to award a R263-million tender for water tankers to two relatively unknown companies, Nutinox and Builtpro Construction.

Morero indicated that his office has engaged Johannesburg Water management about the reported alleged corruption with the water tanker tender case, which he said is currently before the courts and that internal auditors are conducting an investigation.

Read more: Joburg awards R263m water tanker tender to two twentysomethings

Political sabotage


Beyond technical issues, Morero addressed explosive allegations of deliberate sabotage. He referenced a report in The Star detailing an audio recording allegedly capturing a clandestine meeting where two mayoral committee members, two ANC officials and a Rand Water official supposedly discussed strategies to destabilise his leadership by disrupting the City’s water supply.

According to the report, the goal of the alleged meeting was to portray Morero as unfit to manage water supply, making the City appear ungovernable.

“We note that this ploy is said to be part of a political scheme to render the City ungovernable and to usurp the mayor of his authority,” Morero said.

“These damning allegations will not be taken lightly,” he said. “We will explore legal counsel and possible options, not ruling out possibly approaching law enforcement agencies for a possible probe to investigate should these allegations be found to be legitimate.” DM

Categories:

Tags: