As Johannesburg Water vows to continue with its clampdown on defaulters, it has also pointed to illegal connections in informal settlements. But in the long-neglected settlements, residents point to shoddy communication, poor workmanship and dysfunction, and they argue that they have had to build lifelines where the system failed. Despite fierce community resistance, on 13 November 2024, Johannesburg Water officials disconnected illegal water links to communal taps in Phumlamqashi informal settlement near Lenasia in Johannesburg South.
The pipes were sealed. For over six years, residents had relied on those connections. Since the cut-off, they have turned to wheelbarrows, hired cars and the kindness of strangers in Vlakfontein Extension 3 and Lenasia South to get water.
Johannesburg Water sent trucks after a violent water strike in the area, but the water trucks are not delivering water because the contractor has not been paid. Daily Maverick asked Johannesburg Water on Thursday, 11 November, why the contractor was not paid and when they will be paid so that they can resume delivery of water to Phumlamqashi, but Johannesburg Water had not answered this particular question six days later, by the time of publication on Tuesday, 16 November. “Even today, there is no water in Phumlamqashi,” said community leader Degreat Makhubele.
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“The tanks are empty. The trucks are parked. The contractor has said no payment, no water delivery.” More than 35,000 residents are affected.
Meetings with Region D officials, ward councillors, the mayor’s office, the premier’s office and Johannesburg Water have not yielded any positives. “We are still fighting,” Makhubele said. “But it’s been unfruitful.” The community’s only water source is a local hardware store, where the queues are too long and only a small number get water.
Residents said they do not pay for the water. “We can’t afford to keep hiring transport to fetch water,” said Noma Mokwena, a single mother. “It’s not sustainable.
Our children had to go to school without bathing. Now schools are closed, but the taps are still dry.” Phumlamqashi, like many informal settlements, is already burdened by poverty, unemployment and neglect. The water crisis has turned survival into a daily struggle.
And still, the water trucks remain parked. Full of potential but empty of promise and purpose. Residents now whisper what officials seem to fear, another big protest…
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