Open letter to Minister Senzo Mchunu

Dear Minister Senzo Mchunu
We are writing this letter to you, pleading with you to intervene with the water crisis that has been periodically plaguing the residents of Linmeyer, South Hills, Risana, Tulisa Park, parts of Oakdene and parts of Rosettenville Extension for the better part of two years, with Rand Water’s infrastructure being the root cause of the majority of the outages.

These beleaguered residents have had a series of water outages, such as when the Palmiet pumping station blew up, causing the residents to be without water from July 4 till July 13, 2021. Then there was a power failure at the Zuikerbosch purification plant, causing the water to be out from August 26 till September 2, 2021. Now, there was apparently an explosion at the Zuikerbosch purification plant, causing the water to be off for four days so far, and it’s not clear when the water will be restored.

What is even more alarming, minister, is that this crisis is not just limited to these areas but also other parts of Gauteng.

Minster, I’m sure you don’t need us to bring to your attention that Section 27 (1) (b) of our country’s constitution states everyone has the right to access sufficient water. However, too often our residents are deprived of this basic human right!

As ward councillors, we have been trying our best to resolve this crisis through Johannesburg Ward and the City of Johannesburg. However, the City is also largely hamstrung as the issues are on Rand Water’s side, which, as I’m sure you are aware of, is a national government competency.

There have been occasions where our residents have been fed up to where they have picketed outside Rand Water’s head office, forcing the leadership at Rand Water to engage with them. Promises were then made, but clearly, nothing sustainable has been put in place.

Minister, as ward councillors, we are making a heartfelt plea to you on behalf of our residents to intervene by having a meeting with Rand Water’s management and coming up with a way forward. I’m sure we also don’t have to remind you we are still amid the pandemic and, therefore, these water outages are a full-blown humanitarian crisis!

Minister, our residents desperately require your department’s intervention.

Regards,

Clr Michael Crichton (Ward 56) and Clr Faeeza Chame (Ward 57)