Residents of Drieziek near Orange Farm have struggled with inconsistent water supplies for years, with some residents reporting dry taps since 2016. They say the problem is only getting worse and a permanent solution may be another 10 years away. “[Getting] water is like finding a job in South Africa for us,” said Nkele Dikeledi Modibogo, a resident of Drieziek Extension 3.
Modibogo said that tap water used to be available in the mornings and switched off by nine or 10 in the morning. But since 2021, an increasing number of taps have been “totally dry” for months at a time. During the 2025 Christmas period many residents had no water at all.
For years, residents across Drieziek, near Orange Farm, have struggled to secure clean water. A Daily Maverick investigation into this area, in southwest Gauteng, found that it has been plagued by dry taps, water cuts and inconsistent supplies. Water tanks supplied to the area are filled infrequently and are not cleaned out or sealed, raising the risk of contamination.
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Daily Maverick recently visited Drieziek, a peri-urban area on the outskirts of Johannesburg that is plagued by high unemployment and poor service delivery. The signs of neglect from the City of Johannesburg municipality are visible. The roads are riddled with potholes, and in the mornings children can be seen pushing wheelbarrows full of water buckets to and from the nearby tanks.
Residents who haven’t had water in weeks take bucketloads of laundry to rinse and hang out to dry in their neighbours’ yards. One of the residents we spoke to confirmed that his taps have been dry since 2016. Another resident, Thembi Ndlovu, said she lives in a house with seven family members and has to take many trips to the water tanks each morning to fill eight buckets a day, which the family use for bathing, cooking and cleaning.
She lives next to a tank in Drieziek 3 which only has water for about three to four hours a day. When it runs out, she walks to Drieziek 6, about 20 minutes away, to fetch water. She says that over the Christmas period there was no water at all.
Now the water is turned on in the early mornings but turned off a few hours later. “You can’t sleep because you know that you have to fill up the buckets before the water is gone. If you could imagine someone who’s working, there are people who are leaving at five in the morning.
They come back at six and they do not find water.” Other residents have resorted to waking up early and driving to other areas of Drieziek that have water. One of them, Samkele Nzimande (32), lives with his wife and two children in Drieziek 3. He said they used to have tap water in the mornings until 9am, but since November 2025 his taps have been dry.
As a result, he drives to Drieziek 6 to fetch water, but the supply there ends at midday, forcing him to drive to Drieziek 4 if he doesn’t make it on time. “If I drive a car, going [to fetch water] is like 20 minutes or 15. But if I walk, it’s an hour,” he explains.
“If I don’t have petrol I have to use a wheelbarrow or a truck. [It takes] like two hours, if it’s far.” As a result, elderly and disabled residents and those unable to fetch water during the hours it is available often resort to paying other residents R10 per bucket to collect it for them. However, this can be prohibitive for those who depend on the R370 Social Relief of Distress grant.
Even when water is available in the tanks, its quality can be a problem. Community activist and long-time Drieziek resident Ben Nkosi showed Daily Maverick one of the tanks and demonstrated how easily the lid can be lifted off.
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