South African have united around a lack of service delivery. Picture: Michel Bega/The Citizen
There are few things more annoying in the early hours than waking up to use a toilet that doesn’t have water to flush or trying to get a drink at a tap as it runs dry.
Night routines have been disrupted by water cuts in Johannesburg for months now, but government this week put a system to the madness.
Water minister Pemmy Majodina on Monday announced that water would be shut from 9pm to 4am the next morning until reservoirs fill enough to properly provide the province with water.
This “solution” is nothing new.
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Ask people from outside the city and they will tell you that they have had timed water cuts for years.
Within the city, less affluent areas know precisely what time their water comes and goes every day. This exact cut has also been put on taps in Sandton for months.
There is little to suggest that cuts in the past have improved anyone’s situation. They have often made it worse.
The water ministry, Rand Water and Johannesburg Water need to stop blaming each other and kicking the proverbial watering can down the road.
Instead, they need to take South Africans into their confidence and have a concrete plan for maintenance, governance oversight, water conservation, and restriction implementation that goes beyond just closing a valve.
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The cut was also paraded as a temporary measure, but we have seen this show before.
Remember lockdown? What about load shedding? And the recent closing of school tuckshops?
All of these were supposed to be temporary restrictions that spiralled into crisis.
The last two still brew, with national government having to step in to avoid Africa’s richest city going dark over unpaid debt.
The current water emergency has been a long time coming but has been neglected for more pressing problems.
Bar one or two, the list of former water ministers reads like a woeful list of the most incompetent and corruption-accused politicians South Africa has ever produced. In the case of Nomvula Mokonyane, the alleged corruption continued even when she was in the department.
It proves the belief that keys to one of South Africa’s most vital departments were given to problem children who should have been booted but were too politically important.
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While this was a theme under Jacob Zuma, the man who followed him into the presidency did little to change it.
Ramaphosa has always been slow to act and only this week promised to speak to the nation on the plague of alleged food poisonings killing our children.
Over 300 have been hospitalised in the last month alone, and more than 20 others have lost their lives.
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Reports this week that 50 other children had fallen ill show the scourge is not letting up and more action needs to be taken.
Stricter regulation of spaza shops and vendors alleged to be the epicentre of the poisonings, stronger enforcement of bylaws, and more political will is needed- not switching off the tap and moving on to the next crisis.
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