Majodina confirms water has been restored in parts of Joburg

Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina has confirmed that water supply has been restored in some of the areas that experienced outages in Gauteng over the recent weeks.

Protests have been taking place across the province after residents were left with dry taps.

The Minister says most of the reservoirs in the province have been stabilised, although capacity in some is not yet at 90%.

Briefing the media in Midrand, Majodina says while progress has been made, some areas are still struggling to recover.

“Whilst I’m saying there is water, there are still challenges in some of the areas, like where we were yesterday. Emmerentia, as well as Melville are taking time to pick up. But we are not going to leave those residents behind without water. Hence, through the City of Johannesburg, we have two cuts to come as an intervention to assist those people up until all of our systems are picked up and stabilised.”

VIDEO | Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation David Mahlobo updates on Joburg Water challenges:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn_aPZ5jHpE

Meanwhile, police have fired rubber bullets at protesters in Soshanguve Block L, north of Pretoria.

Residents have taken to the streets, barricading roads with burning tyres and rocks in protest over ongoing water outages.

The community says they have been without water for two weeks.

The protest also led to the disruption of bus services at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), leaving many students stranded.

One resident who was shot during the protest says he intends to open a case against the police, alleging excessive use of force.

“Whatever they are doing to this community is so wrong. Because they have no right to shoot [at us] while we are just protesting. They should have communicated with us before shooting, now I have injuries of rubber bullets, here is proof….”

VIDEO | City of Tshwane water network under severe pressure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwLHlexaDo8