Frustration boiled over in Emmarentia as angry residents from Emmarentia, Parktown, Melville and surrounding suburbs confronted Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero and Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation David Mahlobo over relentless water outages crippling parts of the city.
What was meant to be a community engagement quickly turned into a heated standoff.
Residents, some without water for more than a week, demanded urgent answers, clear timelines and accountability from both local and national government leaders.
Tempers flared as community members accused authorities of failing to provide one of the most basic constitutional rights — access to water.
“We are not going to allow you to be on the street as if your voices are not being heard. I’m going to go and later address the residents,” Mahlobo said during the confrontation.
But residents spoke over him, shouting that some households had gone nine days without a single drop of water — and that government had offered no concrete solutions.
Mahlobo eventually walked away from the gathering, leaving Mayor Morero to face the increasingly angry crowd alone.
“That is negligence”
Residents pressed Morero for answers as he cited high water demand and infrastructure challenges, including a pipe leak at the Klipfontein Water Reservoir.
One resident rejected the explanation outright.
“You can’t come and say you are surprised by a water leak. That is negligence,” he said.
Morero responded: “No, we are not surprised that there is a leak. The Klipfontein Water Reservoir had a leak — we agree it has been nine days without water here. Something has to be done.”
However, residents said the biggest failure has been a lack of communication from the City, accusing officials of keeping communities in the dark while taps remain dry.
Some Without Water for 25 Days
Dr Ferrial Adam, Executive Director of WaterCAN, told Newsnote that the crisis stretches far beyond Emmarentia.
“Some residents have not had a single drop in their taps for more than 25 days. There were no proper water tankers. Of course people are completely frustrated and angry,” she said.
Adam warned that communities in Kensington and South Hills in Johannesburg South are also preparing to protest.
She argued that the underlying issue is chronic underfunding of water infrastructure.
“The metro has not budgeted enough to fix the infrastructure. They can’t do maintenance, they can’t fix the pipes, they can’t fix the Brixton Tower and Reservoir,” she said.
According to Adam, stabilising supply depends on urgent repairs to the Alexandra Reservoir, Hursthill 2 Reservoir and the Brixton Reservoir Tower.
“If pipeline decay and infrastructure failure are not addressed, the problem won’t go away,” she added.
Protests Intensify
Residents had already taken to the streets earlier in the day after weeks of water shortages, and returned again on Wednesday evening signalling that anger in these communities is far from over.
With taps still dry and no firm timelines announced, pressure is mounting on the City of Johannesburg and national government to act before frustration turns into full-scale unrest as three protests are expected on Thursday throughout the day.
