Government has called for calm after volatile protests rocked Westbury and Coronationville in Johannesburg over water supply challenges.
Protests
Police responded to the protests with rubber bullets as angry protestors demanded answers over the ongoing water outages
The residents are asking why they should bear the brunt of South Africa’s severe water shortages.
Concerns
Deputy Government spokesperson William Baloyi said they acknowledge the seriousness of the concerns and are working on long-term, sustainable solutions to ensure a reliable supply to the affected communities.
“The City of Johannesburg, through Joburg Water, has announced medium-to-long-term measures aimed at sustainably addressing the challenges. These include measures to mitigate against the strain caused by low water levels in some of the reservoirs supplying the affected areas, and work by Joburg Water to complete and commission the new Brixton reservoir and tower by the end of next month (October 2025).
“Furthermore, Joburg Water is working on stabilising the system through managing demand with the aim to improve reservoir levels,” Baloyi said.
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Interim measures
Baloyi said government has directed the City of Johannesburg to implement immediate interim measures to address the current water supply challenges.
“Communities are urged to allow these measures to be carried out without disrupting the workers, as any interference will delay their implementation.
“Government respects the right of communities to raise their grievances through protests as enshrined in Section 17 of the Constitution, however, residents have the responsibility to exercise this right peacefully and without damage to property. The destruction of infrastructure and acts of violence only delay the very solutions that communities are demanding,” Baloyi said.
Joburg water responds
Meanwhile, Joburg Water responded to the protests, saying its main system, which supplies the Hursthill, Brixton, and Crosby reservoirs, which cater to areas including Westbury, Westdene, and Coronationville, is constrained due to high demand and infrastructure limitations.
Joburg Water said that all three reservoirs fed by the system were critically low, with Hursthill completely empty. The utility added that high-lying areas were the hardest hit.
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