Frustration boiled over into protest in the Westbury community on Tuesday as residents took to the streets, alleging that corruption and deliberate mismanagement are the root causes of a persistent and devastating water crisis.
The protest comes just one week after a previous demonstration where officials from Johannesburg Water (Joburg Water) had promised to restore supply within ten hours. While water briefly returned, residents report taps ran dry again soon after, reigniting anger and distrust.
Tensions were high at the scene, underscored by the arrival of multiple South African Police Service (SAPS) vans. However, the protest remained focused, with residents directing their frustration at the government and water utility, not law enforcement.
A community spokesperson, who addressed reporters at the protest, articulated the deep-seated grievances. He alleged the water shortages are not due to a lack of water in the system but are a “by design” problem fueled by corruption within tender processes for water delivery.
“The people are murmuring… there’s an underlying understanding that there may be corruption,” the spokesperson stated. “We know that there’s been reports where the reservoirs had been vandalized for the simple reason that the guys are now using the trucks, getting tenders, and are filling the trucks and bringing it to the water as if they are doing the people a service.”
He warned that community anger is now being directed at these water delivery trucks, which are seen as symbols of a corrupt system profiting from their hardship.
The spokesperson vehemently dismissed the official explanation of infrastructure vandalism as the primary cause. He pointed to recent heavy rains and full dams as evidence that South Africa does not have a water shortage but a “corruption problem” and a failure to maintain infrastructure.
The issue took on a further dimension when the spokesperson alleged racial discrimination in water distribution. He claimed that a nearby informal settlement, which he described as predominantly Black, receives uninterrupted water supply while the historically mixed-race (colored) community of Westbury goes without.
“Logically we are saying it is discrimination against the so-called colored people… I represent the first Aboriginal indigenous people of southern Africa. I’m here because I’m also a victim,” he said, detailing the personal indignity of being unable to bathe.
Declaring that living conditions are “worse off than apartheid,” the spokesperson issued a sharp warning to politicians, stating that residents would remember the failure at the ballot box.
Looking forward, he acknowledged that protests and barricades have become ineffective as the government has grown “immune” to them. Instead, he proposed a new strategy: pursuing litigation and elevating the issue to an international human rights forum to pressure the government into action.
“For the moment,” he said, “the plan is simple: We want water.”
The ongoing crisis and repeated protests highlight a severe breakdown in service delivery and a critical loss of trust between the Westbury community and the authorities tasked with providing a fundamental human right.
