CALL TO DISSOLVE JOBURG WATER

Mon 11 November 2024:

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling for the dissolution of the Johannesburg Water board, citing incompetence as the root cause of the city’s persistent water problems.

Ward 74 councillor and DA caucus leader Cllr Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku spearheaded this demand, telling Salaamedia that it’s one way the party aims to hold the board accountable.

“They have a lack of technical expertise on the boards of an entity like Jo’burg Water, where obviously the board of directors are expected to do oversight over the entity, and there are people who are not necessarily water technical minded,” she explained.

A recent exposé by the Daily Maverick revealed that cadre deployment has pushed the entity to its limits, with connected individuals often securing senior positions at the expense of efficiency.

The city’s water woes are stark: September alone saw 3 318 water cuts. In just the first nine days of October, there were already 1 604 cuts—a number that has likely risen since.

Water loss is another critical issue, with a staggering 48.2% of purified water lost to leaks, theft, or non-payment.

Kayser-Echeozonjoku painted a grim picture: “We’ve had situations where people go without tap water for days, sometimes weeks. Meanwhile, you see water flooding the streets and sewer leaks everywhere.”

She urged Executive Mayor Dada Morero to take proactive measures to address the city’s water challenges.

“The turnaround strategy is as good as nothing if they don’t have an infrastructure protection plan, if they don’t allocate sufficient budget to do either the upgrade and the repairs and maintenance of the water infrastructure,” she asserted. “We will monitor what they’re doing on that turnaround strategy.