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Sophiatown residents in Johannesburg carrying water they got from the truck on September 14, 2025.
Sophiatown residents in Johannesburg say the prolonged water shortages are impacting their lives and everyday activities in a negative way, highlighting incidents when they have had to miss work and church.
Last week, Sophiatown, Westbury, Coronationville and surrounding areas blocked roads with burning tyres during a protest over water outages. Mayor Dada Morero responded by saying that the water will be restored in seven days.
Speaking to SABC News, while filling water at a truck stationed at a local shopping centre on Sunday afternoon, resident Zamokwakhe Mkhize says he feels powerless as a citizen and rejects the mayor’s apology.
Mkhize says, “It’s really inconvenient. I understand a water outage due to a burst pipe for like a day or two, but like 14 days is inconvenient. There was like a couple of days when there was no water truck and there was no water, I couldn’t just literally go to work, I think for two Sundays I couldn’t even go to church. It was literally empty.”
He says, “So the situation is, to say it’s inconvenient is an understatement and it’s just plain disrespectful… The mayor’s words to say ‘I’m sorry’while he is busy drinking water there; we’re busy drinking this I’m sorry. The whole thing is incredibly angering, but what we can do as citizens, we feel very powerless, we can protest out there, but really, what huge change can we make.”
“It’s a nightmare”
Hair salon owner Mary Nicholson, after finding out that the truck was in her street, started rushing and taking anything she could find to stock up on water.
Nicholson says, “I don’t even know what to say because this is a nightmare! It’s a nightmare! We can’t live like this. Every time it looks like you need the toilet, the bathroom, it’s a nightmare. How can we live like that, human beings live like this? Look how we must rush and run for water…What is the problem that they are not fixing it …We are pensioners on chronic medication, we can’t afford this.”
Another resident says the mayor and councillors are useless.
“It’s very bad, it’s weeks now, it’s toilet, it’s bath, everything, you can’t even cook properly because how much water does it take to cook rice…Since last year the same problem, there is maintenance, the reservoir is cracked, since last year they are giving us the same story over and over…First of all, we are paying for water and we are not getting water, you must see our bills what it looks like, so where do they get those bills from?”
PODCAST: Philine Bapela shares her experience with the water outage:
