Watershed moment: Pemmy Majodina, Minister of Water and Sanitation, with President Cyril Ramaphosa. Photo: Supplied
Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero has said population growth is one of the reasons city residents have faced several water cuts over the past few weeks.
This comes as a voice note circulated on WhatsApp claimed political sabotage was at the centre of Johannesburg’s worsening water crisis, which has seen taps running dry in suburbs such as Westbury, Carletonville, Linden, Tembisa and Soweto.
The Mail & Guardian is in possession of the voice note, in which a man, apparently an ActionSA Johannesburg councillor identified as Zac, says the water problems in the city had been deliberately caused in a bid to remove Morero and replace him with finance MMC Loyiso Masuku.
Masuku and Morero are vying for the ANC regional chairperson position at the party’s upcoming regional conference.
In the voice note, an ANC member is heard asking Zac whether service delivery issues, including the water shortage, were meant to destroy Morero and the municipality in a bid for him to lose the regional conference.
“Remember that thing of the water was a strategic move to summarise it,” Zak replies, adding: “Once Loyiso emerges, we configure the mayoral committee with the short man [Morero].”
The ANC member then asks Zac whether ActionSA was part of those who didn’t want Morero to be successful at the conference.
“We are part of that thing; we want to remove Dada. Our faction is clear, we are collapsing the short man, we are taking power from the short man,” he says, adding that they are “playing with state power”.
The ANC member asks Zac whether former ANC regional secretary Sasabona Manganye was part of those he is working with to sabotage the city.
“Sasa is Floyd Brink, direct. We are playing with state power.”
According to Zac, his faction wanted Floyd Brink to return as the city manager.
In a score sheet, which the M&G, has seen, Brink is ahead of the 10 people the city had interviewed for the position.
Brink vacated his position as city manager in December last year after the high court in Johannesburg ruled that his appointment was unconstitutional and invalid.
When the M&G contacted Zac for comment, he said this was a political ploy by an ANC member who wanted to tarnish his name. He added that there was a bitter fight between two ANC factions who wanted to destroy each other.
“I don’t know what is happening in the ANC. I am not even aware of the voice recording you are talking about; it’s part of the ANC smear campaign. I’m being framed to say I’m working with this and that faction.”
Zac added: “You know, when you talk to a person and then you say so-and-so is your person and then they take a clip and say this and that.”
Speaking to the M&G about the recording, Morero said that he was aware of it but did not want to comment further.
Asked whether he thought he was being sabotaged, Morero said his focus was to fix the water problems in the city.
An ANC regional leader, who did not want to be named, said that the voice note was meant to tarnish the names of certain leaders who wanted to contest the party’s upcoming conference, saying this should not be taken seriously.
“We must focus on issues that are facing society, which are the issues of water. This is just done to damage the names of certain individuals. We all know these things are coming because of the regional conference. The narrative is to support an individual and dent others,” the leader said.
Manganye, who serves as the ANC regional coordinator, told the M&G that he was aware of the recording, but Zac had denied that it was him in the voice note.
Manganye said he would not have discussed an ANC leader with the opposition.
“If we want the mayor out, there’s no way I can go to the opposition. I have the power in the organisation to say resign. We don’t remove our leaders through a motion in the ANC,” he said. “We instruct you to resign when there are issues with you and, so far, there are no issues.
“Why should we remove the mayor? There was a motion of no confidence and, the worst part about this audio, is that the motion was just now and we went there to defeat the motion.
“So, why will I need the opposition to deal with matters we can deal with as a party, if there are issues, but so far, there are no issues.”
Johannesburg Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus leader Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku said that one of the biggest problems the city had was decaying infrastructure and poor maintenance planning to deal with the causes.
“What the current administration is doing is firefighting; they are not dealing with the root cause of the problem. As much as Rand Water can supply water, the water is lost through old, leaking pipes and reservoirs that have cracks in them.”
She said the party believes it is possible that water infrastructure is being sabotaged and some people were benefiting by providing tankers to supply water to affected areas.
Kayser-Echeozonjoku said water tankers were not a sustainable solution and said this raised questions about who stands to benefit from their continued use.
“The problem in Johannesburg is not only political, but lack of political will to allocate sufficient budget to water infrastructure, specifically.”
She added that they have also raised questions about why the city has not been applying for the infrastructure grants, provided by the water and sanitation department.
“These grants are available for municipalities to apply for. The challenge with these grants is that people who are refusing to account will not apply for them because they need to account for how they use these conditional grants,” said Kayser-Echeozonjoku.
In his weekly newsletter, Morero said the water system was built for a much smaller population, and the rapid growth the city has put pressure on water infrastructure which had become unsustainable.
He added that factors such as illegal water connections and frequent pipe bursts compound the situation, especially in high-demand areas.
Recently, residents in suburbs such as Westbury, Carletonville and Ebony Park barricaded roads in violent protests, while some areas in Johannesburg had gone for weeks without water.
This is not the first time the city has cited population growth as the reason for failing to provide water to its residents. In a media briefing in October 2023, Johannesburg Water senior networks manager Logan Munsamy blamed population growth for the water shortages across Joburg, while the entity’s chief operating officer, Derrick Kgwale, blamed hot weather.
In November, Rand Water said that 2.5 billion litres of the 5.2 billion litres it provides to Gauteng municipalities daily was lost through leaks, ageing infrastructure and theft.
The 2.5 billion litres accounted for 48% of the water that the utility provided to the province’s municipalities daily.
Little appears to have changed.
In his newsletter this week, Morero said to combat this crisis, the city has implemented urgent temporary measures and the number of water tankers delivering essential supplies has increased to 21, bringing hope to the most affected neighbourhoods.
“We are adjusting supply patterns to allow reservoirs to recharge overnight, ensuring a more reliable flow during the day.”
He said the city had also agreed with Department of Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina that Johannesburg would deal with leaks and get support from the provincial government.
“In that way, we will reduce our water losses quite significantly as we deal with pipe replacements,” Morero said.
“In addition to these immediate relief efforts, we are committed to long-term solutions. A groundwater project has begun in Region G. It is aimed at providing direct access to water in informal settlements and reducing illegal connections.
“We will also be introducing controlled throttling in certain areas so that we can stabilise supply for the most affected communities like Kensington, Westbury and Coronationville.”
He added that the water crisis couldn’t be tackled by the city alone and every household had to make a concerted effort to use water wisely because every drop counts.
“We call on our communities to use water sparingly and help preserve this vital resource. By reducing consumption, we can better support areas that are struggling with low supply and ensure their reservoirs are replenished.”
The water and sanitation department’s spokesperson, Wisane Mavasa, said the department is responsible for allocation of the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant and Water Services Infrastructure Grant.
But these two grants can only be allocated to non-metropolitan water services authorities (municipalities that are not metros).
Metros can apply for the Urban Settlement Grant through the department of human settlement.
She said the department continues to provide support through technical advice on how to address the current water problems in Johannesburg.
“Water is supposed to be a self-sustaining service. Through its sales, water service authorities [WSA] are expected to reinvest back the revenue to develop, operate and maintain water provision infrastructure.
“It is for this reason the department advises all WSAs to ringfence water and sanitation revenue to only be utilised to manage water services to ensure reliability and sustainability of the supply to their customers.”