No Water, No Answers: Inside Joburg’s Growing Rates and Services Crisis

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 crisis.

“It’s been 33 days. We call, we log tickets, we beg on social media but no one comes. My kids haven’t bathed properly in weeks,” said Nokuthula Dube, a mother of three in Ennerdale.

Despite repeated public complaints and social media outcry, neither Rand Water nor Joburg Water has issued clear timelines or emergency support plans. In some cases, residents report receiving vague SMS updates or being told to "be patient" even as water meters continue running, raising fears of inaccurate billing and future debt collection.

Community WhatsApp groups and local councillors are flooded with desperate messages, some residents resorting to collecting water from leaking fire hydrants or nearby industrial parks.

Civil society organisations have started mobilising, with calls for a formal class action, while legal experts argue this may amount to a breach of the constitutional right to water and dignity.

Meanwhile, City Power, Pikitup, and other service providers have continued issuing disconnection notices for unrelated bills, adding insult to injury for affected households.

“We’re paying for services we don’t get. This is a betrayal. If this was Sandton, would they be ignored for 30 days?” asked Moeketsi Maleka, a Brixton resident and community organiser.

The City of Johannesburg has yet to issue an official statement addressing the scale of the crisis or outlining relief measures. As frustrations boil over, many residents are demanding refunds, interim water tanks, and public accountability not silence.