OPINION | Joburg's water crisis met with the arrogance of official silence

In Coronationville, Westbury and Sophiatown, the sound of running water has become a luxury.

For weeks now, taps have run dry. Mothers are forced to wake up at dawn to queue for water tankers that often arrive late, if at all. Children go to school without a proper bath. Elderly residents, some on chronic medication, struggle to carry heavy buckets up flights of stairs.

This is not the life that residents of Johannesburg deserve. We live in one of Africa’s largest and richest cities, yet many of its people are living as if they are forgotten.

Take the story of aunty Alice, a 76-year-old pensioner in Sophiatown. She lives in a small two-room home and depends on neighbours to help her fetch water from a tanker parked several streets away. On days when nobody is available, she is forced to go without washing or cooking, or to pay someone from her small pension to carry a bucket for her.

“I never thought I would live to see the day when we would beg for water in Johannesburg,” she says quietly. Her story is not unique – it is shared by thousands of households across our city.

The heartbreak lies not only in the empty taps but in the empty promises from the City of Joburg’s leadership. Residents have pleaded, protested and written letters, but the mayor has refused to come and listen.

He has not walked the streets of Coronationville to see how people are living. He has not sat with families in Westbury who are struggling to cook, clean, or care for their children. He has not come to Sophiatown to hear how pensioners like aunty Alice are surviving day to day. Instead, he stays far removed from the crisis, issuing cold statements while communities suffer.

To make matters worse, when opposition ward councillors tabled a motion in council to force Johannesburg Water to account for the number of leaks draining supply from the system, the ruling government of the local unity coalition voted against it.

They did not vote against the opposition – they voted against the residents of Johannesburg. They voted against fixing leaks, against transparency and against the people they claim to serve. At the very moment when residents were crying for water, the council chose political protection over human need.

Leadership is about presence. In a crisis, people don’t only need explanations – they need empathy, reassurance and visible action. They need to know their government sees them, hears them and is working with urgency to restore dignity. Right now, that is completely absent.

Water is not just a service – it is life itself. Without it, our residents are being stripped of their health, their dignity and their peace of mind. The constitutional right to water is not negotiable, yet in Johannesburg it is being treated as optional.

What makes this worse is the arrogance of silence. By not showing up, by refusing to engage, the city is telling the people of Coronationville, Westbury and Sophiatown that their struggles do not matter. That their lives are not worth the time of those elected to serve them.

But these communities are resilient. They refuse to be silenced. They have raised their voices and they will continue to do so until their leaders are forced to act.

Johannesburg deserves a mayor who will face its people, not turn his back on them.

And while this leadership may not listen now, every resident will have a chance to change it in 2026.