DA federal leader and City of Johannesburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille says the party will be taking Johannesburg Water and the city to court over the water crisis.
Zille made the announcement during a media briefing on Wednesday amid the ongoing water challenges plaguing the city.
She revealed that the city council failed to implement the water turnaround strategy as previously promised.
Legal action
Zille said the DA’s attorneys are looking into the matter.
“Although there is a water turnaround strategy, it is not being implemented, and it is not being funded.
“Failing to allocate money, we will seek an order that holds them to account, ensure that they implement the turnaround strategy to end the crisis and to fulfil their constitutional duty to provide residences and businesses, people in Joburg with clean, reliable water.”
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Day Zero Â
City of Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero admitted that residents who have not had water at all are in “day zero”. On Wednesday, an angry resident confronted him about the crisis.
Morero was addressing the media at the Brixton Water Reservoir as the city battles dry taps and leaking pipes that have contributed to Joburg’s latest water woes as it teeters on the brink of day zero.
Angry and frustrated residents took to the streets in various parts of the city, including Melville, Parktown West, Mayfair, Greenside, Parkview and Emmarentia, which have been without water for nearly 20 days.
Water stability
Morero said the City of Johannesburg is taking decisive action to stabilise the water supply network and reduce consumption through what it called a “comprehensive, multifaceted Water Demand Management programme”.
“For people [who] have not had water at all, logically it would mean that they are in a day zero. So we need to make sure that we look at those areas, sort those areas that have been adversely affected and ensure that we can keep up.
“I think the weather is also existing in terms of the heat wave, and people are consuming more water,” Morero said.
On Monday, Helen Zille shared a video on her Instagram account in which she is seen sitting on the edge of a massive hole, cooling her legs in a pool of water from a burst pipe, which saw thousands of litres of clean, drinkable water running down the streets of Linbro Park.
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