Helen Zille is exposing what Joburgers are experiencing daily

Johannesburg mayoral candidate, Helen Zille, kayaking on a flooded road in Dobsonville. In the last few weeks I have felt like I’m in aMonty Pythonmovie. The most creative storyteller couldn’t make this up!

Based on various reports, the city loses from 30% to 45% of its water supply, which equates to at least 179 million kilolitres per year, or approximately 14.91 million kilolitres on a monthly average. This wastage is through leaks, pipe bursts, and infrastructure failures that the city doesn’t address. Joburgers keep paying exorbitant rates, which are inversely proportional to what we get in return!

It becomes even more Monty Pythonish when I read that our incompetent city mayor, Dada Morero, who is leading the decay of Jozi, recently participated in a panel discussion at a conferencetitled”Global Challenges, Local Leadership: How Mayors Deliver Results”at the Harvard University Center for African Studies. Morero sat at Harvard espousing the virtues of a good mayor, when back home we have never been in a worse situation as a city! For years now, we have also heard how Ramaphosa, first as deputy president and then as president, is heading a water “war room” or a similar configuration—yet nothing comes of any of these initiatives.

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Of course, people like Cyril Ramaphosa andPanyaza Lesufiaren’t affected, as they either have access to water from their government accommodation or a nice hotel nearby! This is while the rest of us mere mortals, who can’t afford fancy hotels, endure dry taps daily. In some cases, for weeks on end!

It is clear that the focus of the ANC and its coalition partners in Johannesburg is to steal and loot as much as possible before they get voted out on election day on 4 November 2026. The current mayor complained that, after Helen Zille exposed a huge unattended ditch of three years, she should not swim in ditches filled with dirty water. The fact that there are potholes and ditches bursting with water in the first place seems to escape Morero.

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