No Water, No Answers: Inside Joburg’s Growing Rates and Services Crisis
Johannesburg, South Africa – 21 June 2025
Thousands of Joburg residents are reaching breaking point after enduring over a month without water, despite continuing to pay high municipal rates. What began as a few isolated service issues has grown into what many are calling a city-wide failure of accountability and basic human rights.
Entire suburbs, including parts of Soweto, Roodepoort, Lenasia, and the south of Johannesburg, have gone dry with taps running empty since late May. Yet, households continue receiving full municipal bills, including water charges. Many say Rand Water and the City of Johannesburg have failed to communicate or provide any alternative water sources, even as the winter months deepen the c…