Gauteng residents suffer without water and electricity due to crumbling infrastructure

18 April 2023

The Gauteng government is not doing enough to advise municipalities on maintenance leaving critical municipal, Eskom and Rand Water infrastructure to crumble.

For the past 30 years, the ANC-led government has allowed critical infrastructure to go to ruins and therefore unable to provide quality services.

The ongoing loadshedding that is being experienced across the country is having a negative impact on substations, water reservoirs and pumping stations.

Over the last two weeks, we have seen the collapse of pylons in Tshwane which has left residents in the North Eastern part of the city without electricity for days on end.

This is because Eskom has failed to do proactive as well as scheduled maintenance on its infrastructure.

If this was done, Eskom will be able to pick up on vandalism that takes place at their infrastructure.

The Eikenhof pumping station flooded leaving residents in the South of Johannesburg without water.

In the most recent incident, residents in Bryanston have been left without water for more than four days.

Water cannot be restored until Joburg Water procures the materials to repair the pipeline because they have none in the store.

A DA government will take pride in assisting municipalities from a national and provincial level by advising local governments on how to spend especially where we see that they are not spending sufficient money on service delivery.

With the current budget presented by the coalition of corruption in Johannesburg, we can see that it is very focused on electioneering in the strongholds of the parties rather than a focus on investing in maintaining the current infrastructure.

We are once again calling on the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu to make part of the R28 billion which will be invested in Rand Water’s infrastructure available to municipalities to upgrade their infrastructure.

We also reiterate our call for an intergovernmental task team to be set up to address the water and electricity crisis. If this is not done, then the current situation will negatively impact investment opportunities and job creation.

Issued by Nico De Jager, DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Infrastructure Development, 18 April 2023