The absence of the City of Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda and Rand Water (RW) representatives angered residents and councillors at a meeting about the water crisis in Joburg south.
They held the meeting at Eureka House at Queen Modjadji in Springfield on June 22.
Attending the meeting included the city’s speaker Colleen Makhubele, chief whip Sithembiso Zungu, the MMC of Environment and Infrastructure Services Jack Sekwaila and councillors from Ward 124 Mongameli Mnyameni, Ward 54 Stuart Marais, Ward 55 Rashieda Landis, Ward 56 Michael Crichton and Ward 57 Faeeza Chame.
Representing Johannesburg Water (JW) was the MD Ntshavheni Mukwevho and the City Power (CP) group executive of the service delivery centre, Charles Mahlaka.
In welcoming the residents, Makhubele said if the city does not service the paying customers, it will be difficult to service the informal settlements.
“I am glad to see all the councillors here. It shows they care for their communities and are at the forefront of this crisis. I promise to return to see the implementation of what we give you today, as we are in crisis,” she said.
Network configuration hinders the isolation of the tower
Sekwaila noted they felt they had to come as they received several calls from the community.
“We are also frustrated. We are at a stage where we want to look at our contract with Rand Water, as we do not deserve this kind of treatment. Electricity and water work hand in hand.
“Unfortunately, when the electricity comes back, it is not the case with water. As much as we want CP to exempt our reservoirs, our network configuration does not allow us to isolate the reservoirs,” he said.
Johannesburg Water on power failure
Mukwevho acknowledged they received 1600Ml of water from the bulk supplier, Rand Water (RW). The Eikenhof pump station supplied almost 50% of the city.
“The challenges have been worse since the beginning of the year. Most of the problems emanated from power failure, not load-shedding. Power is important, as there is a lot of pumping of water.
“We had two power failures on June 2 at the Zuikerbosch and Palmiet pump stations. It kept tripping because RW must be at 30% before we could pump to the South Hills tower.
“Someone vandalised the Orlando substation on June 8, which affected the Eikenhof pump station, and resulted in RW not pumping. Also, the Meredale reservoir was lost as well.
“Another power failure incident happened on June 13 and again on June 19 in Vereeniging and RW lost its capacity. In June alone, we lost several days where we could not supply water; six days (June 2), eight days (June 8), six days (June 13) and two days (June 19).
“The system is so big that it cannot handle these frequent interruptions. RW is planning on increasing capacity at their plant in Vereeniging. We also remember that the Emfuleni municipality supplies power at their plant, not CP,” he explained.
City Power has a plan
When Mahlaka took the stand, he first apologised to the community for the power interruptions.
“The designers did not design our electricity infrastructure to go on and off. This causes strain on the system. If you look at its age and how we operate it, even if we maintain it regularly, the interruptions make it difficult to do so. Then it needs us to implement interventions.
“The Orlando outage, caused by theft and vandalism, hit a few of our substations. It affected our reservoirs because our network is interlinked. In all these instances, we had plans – short and medium ones.”
Mahlaka said theft and vandalism, being the biggest factors, were thorny issues.
“The criminals are having a field day. We have plans to curb this, but cannot divulge them yet. We are in talks with JW about how we can exempt them. Our network is embedded and isolation or exemption is impossible.
“We are rolling out technologies like smart meters and solar to mitigate this. We are bringing back our gas generators to bring back more power,” he said.
Residents want answers now!
Residents vented their frustrations and were fuming.
Moe Ally, convenor of Robertsham Action Group, said they were tired and wanted answers – now.
“In Robertsham, we have endless problems. In March we had 21 days without water and now already 14 days. Why don’t you hold RW accountable?
“Water is life and a fundamental need. We want answers on what are you going to do and when? We want to know your plans. Our councillors are failing us. With this recently approved budget, we want to know how you are using it and the breakdown. Stop bull******** us. You are pulling wool on our eyes. Now there will be contamination in our water, and Hamanskraal will look like a picnic,” he said.
Other residents asked why RW and the mayor were not present.
To residents, their absence showed that they don’t care or take residents seriously. They asked where the security was to address theft and vandalism and when they would fix the ubiquitous burst pipes.
The chief whip, Zungu, said mayor Gwamanda sent an apology while the meeting was in session. Zungu promised the residents that he would personally bring the mayor to the next time the community was meeting.
He said there would be feedback soon on the issues discussed in the meeting and they will liaise the message through the councillors.
