Police fire rubber bullets at residents and journalists in Joburg water protests

“We don’t want the mayor of Johannesburg, Dada Morero, he has failed, we want his boss, the premier [to visit us],’’ an elderly resident of Coronationville in Johannesburg said on Wednesday, 10 September 2025, during a protest against water cuts in the area.

Community members told Daily Maverick they had not had water for nearly a week, with many claiming the largely coloured communities had long been neglected by the government. 

“It’s now over six years that this has been happening, my friend,” claimed a local pastor. 

Westbury resident 18-year-old Liam Willet told Daily Maverick he was annoyed that he could not go to school because of the water cuts, saying he was “tired of neglect”.

Protesters blocked key roads around Coronationville and Westbury, burning tyres and throwing rocks at the police, who responded with stun grenades, teargas and rubber bullets. 

James Jacobs, 68, from Westbury, said the water problems in the area started many years ago, but they had worsened in recent years. 

“What about our children? We have to bath them, we have to bath ourselves and we have to use the toilet,” Jacobs said. “Now there is no water. I have to buy water from the Somalians who own shops. Buying water from foreigners in my country.”

Jacobs said the shop owners were selling water, and that they paid R30 for five litres. Other residents told Daily Maverick that they got water at the nearby Shell garage.

A petrol attendant at the garage told Daily Maverick on Wednesday that they only stopped residents from fetching water at the garage if too many people came at once and disrupted their work. 

“If they arrive in smaller groups, we have no problem with them,” the petrol attendant said. 

On Wednesday, pensioner George van Heeden was assisted as he struggled from the Shell with a 20-litre bucket of water for his family. He told Daily Maverick that he had to step out despite his health because he had small grandchildren who needed baths and nappy changes.

“In Soweto, they have water. In Ennerdale, residents have water. What have we done?” Van Heeden asked. 

“The police presence here is irrelevant. They also don’t have water in their houses, but they are standing around here with guns,” Willet said. “They do not come here when they are needed for serious crimes, but are here when we need services.” 

Read more: Joburg’s failing water infrastructure a result of poor prioritisation, not lack of funds

Westbury is supplied from the Hursthill No 1 Reservoir, which is part of the Hursthill System. The system has been undergoing maintenance for nearly a week. 

According to Johannesburg Water, the maintenance work could improve pumping capacity to the Brixton Reservoir and Hursthill 1 supply zone. Johannesburg Water had not responded to Daily Maverick’s questions at the time of writing.

“It takes time for the system to recover, so throttling had been implemented,” Mayor Morero said at another event on Wednesday. 

Police response

There was a strong police presence at Wednesday’s protest, one in a series of demonstrations over water cuts in the area over the past year, and a number of people were shot with rubber bullets. 

Read more: Coronationville residents take to the streets, fed up by persistent Johannesburg water outages

Protestors blockaded the roads with burning tyres and threw rocks at the police, who responded with stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets. 

The police shot Daily Maverick journalist Julia Evans in the leg with a rubber bullet while she was covering the protests on Wednesday. Daily Maverick requested comment from SAPS on when police use rubber bullets and how members differentiate between protesters and non-protesters, such as journalists. 

Gauteng SAPS spokesperson Mavela Masondo said: “Police used minimum force, which is rubber bullets, to disperse the crowd that blockaded the public road and some of the people amongst the crowd throwing stones at the police.

“The police are not aware that the journalist was within the crowd. The journalist is at liberty to open a case if he/she believes there was wrong doings from the side of the police. The matter will then be transferred to IPID for investigation.”

In South Africa a@dailymaverick journalist Julia Evans was hit in the leg by a rubber bullet - shot by police - during a water protest this morning. Protesters had their hands up when police fired. pic.twitter.com/9Syv3fChIb

— World Editors Forum (@WorldEditors) September 10, 2025

Journalist’s account — Julia Evans recounts the shooting

Just after 8am this morning, after speaking with Westbury and Coronationville residents — many of them elders who had to walk across their area to collect water, or parents worrying about their grandchildren who are being let out of school early due to the water cuts — I walked down the road to another blockade, where residents had laid rocks, branches and burning tyres to stop traffic.

At the blockade, residents and SAPS officers were in a stand-off. The residents raised their arms and shouted: “We are not armed.”

Suddenly, the SAPS dropped a flashbang. Immediately, the street went silent, no one screamed, but people began to run up the road as the sound of rubber bullets rang out.

While I was running, I felt a sharp, hot impact on the side of my leg. A rubber bullet had hit me. I wasn’t wearing my press badge today, but my camera was slung around my neck, which is usually an indicator. From what I saw, the police did not give any verbal warning before firing, and anyone — residents, demonstrators or journalists — who was nearby was at risk of being hit.

We ended up outside the back entrance of Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital. Someone asked if I was okay, and a nursing sister came out to take me and another demonstrator, who had been grazed by a rubber bullet on her hand, inside.

Before going in, I took photos of demonstrators running as police advanced up the road, intermittently firing rubber bullets into the ground.

Inside Rahima Moosa, the hospital staff were excellent. I was treated at the triage unit in the Emergency Department, and X-rays confirmed there was no internal damage, and that it was a surface wound.

While being treated, I sat next to the woman with the injured hand. She lives in the flats opposite Westbury Clinic and told me she had been without consistent water for more than three months, and said that if residents are honest, it had been more than five years. She has to wake up at 3am to collect water, but for the past few weeks, their taps have been dry.

SAPS guidelines

While the SAPS reportedly doesn’t set clear standards for the use of rubber bullets in protests, its National Standard on Crowd Management During Gatherings and Demonstrations outlines how members should approach protests, as well as when and how to use force.

It says police officers must always attempt to de-escalate a situation, but as independent policing expert David Bruce has previously explained: “The police have a limited repertoire when it comes to responding to unrest. Their modus operandi is to fall back to using rubber bullets.”

Read more: ‘Trigger-happy’ use of rubber bullets by police results in death and lifelong injury in South Africa

The National Standard says that: “Where the use of force is unavoidable, respect for and protection of life has highest priority.

“When the use of force is reasonably necessary in the circumstances, the minimum force required to achieve a legitimate law enforcement objective must be used,” it continues.

“The type and level of the force used and the harm that may reasonably be expected to result from it must be proportionate to the threat posed by an individual or group of individuals.”

Read more: Loss of life and eyesight common due to excessive use of rubber bullets by police

It also notes that crowds shouldn’t be treated as identical: “Members must distinguish between acts of violence attributable to a person or a smaller group, and peaceful behaviour of other participants and bystanders, to ensure that the rights of the latter can be respected, protected and facilitated.” DM

Additional reporting by Julia Evans.

This story was updated at 19:10 on 10 September 2025 to include SAPS Gauteng spokesperson Mavela Masondo’s comment once it was received.