“It’s important that I insist there is no need for panic, but there is a need to be prudent in the way that we use water. The situation is very serious. However, it is not one that calls for panic,” Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told journalists on Monday 27 October at a briefing about the country’s water crisis.

However, some residents of the small town of Hammenskraal say they have been without water for almost eight days. On Tuesday, Lebo Mashile who had already been waiting in the line since seven in the morning said: “We are experiencing a water crisis like no other. It has been like this since last week Tuesday, today is day 8. It’s a disaster. Sewerage is blocking, our kids are suffering.”

The City of Tshwane said in a statement that the temporary shutdown is due to a power failure at the Pyramid Substation in Rooiwal. The power failure, it said,  was caused by a lightning strike on Friday 18 October.

As a result, the city has provided water tankers to the residents of Hammanskraal. However,  the residents do not believe that the provided water tankers will be enough. “They have placed five water tankers all around Hammanskraal, look how many of us there are here. It’s not enough,” Mashile said.

Residents waiting to fill water into the buckets started fighting at one of the tankers in Hammanskraal as people were desperate to get water from the tanker before it ran out.

Tempers flared as residents became concerned that there would not be enough water in the tanker to go round.

Mapule Malutsi came to the tanker with her youngest child on her back to get water. Malutsi says the situation makes her both angry and sad. “We can’t bath and we have to cook, we have young kids and we don’t have water. It’s very bad because how can you stay with people who don’t bathe,” Malutsi said.

Even though the City of Tswane has made it clear that consumers are not supposed to pay any amount of money this person (who did not want to be identified) said he had to pay R5 for this five-litre bottle of water.

Johannes Xolani has been in the queue since 6am but says what has added to his frustration is that the City of Tshwane has not come to address the residents in Hammanskraal. “These people don’t come to us and tell us what’s going on…They don’t call a meeting and inform the people,” Xolani said.

John Legodi, a resident in Hammanskraal, fetching water in  the heat was very difficult.  “I have a wife and two daughters, one is nine and the other one is fourteen, I must also bring water for them,” Legodi said. If there is no water at the tanker, Legodi must go to another area in Hammanskraal by foot and join the queue to wait and see if there is enough water for him.

Sisulu said in the media briefing on Monday that the country is experiencing a “water stress”. Business, like this car wash, is feeling the stress of the water crisis. Sisulu added that it is vital that South Africa “immediately begin to disaster-proof” its self.

Other business entities that have been affected are places like hair salons that cannot operate without water.

Dumiseni Masilela says that he wants to remain hopeful that the City of Tshwane will resolve the water crisis quickly.

And with temperatures rising in Gauteng, residents of Hammanskraal are anxious to hear when the issue will be resolved. “We can’t live like this,” Masilela said.