Ramaphosa deploys ministers before Sona to ‘urgently’ tackle Joburg’s water crisis

Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina and Cooperative Governance Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa were instructed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to return to Johannesburg before his State of the Nation Address (Sona), to deal with the metro’s worsening water crisis.

Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magweyna confirmed to Daily Maverick that the president had ordered Hlabisa and Majodina to “urgently” attend to the water crisis in Johannesburg, as the City’s water system again teetered on collapse.

Both Hlabisa and Majodina were already in Cape Town to attend Ramaphosa’s Sona on Thursday night, when plans changed.

“They won’t be attending [the] Sona as a result,” Magwenya said. “The president finds the Johannesburg water crisis deeply distressing and wants to have it resolved as soon as possible. He is equally concerned about reported water shortages in other parts of the country.

“Water is certainly going to be one of the central features of the reforms the president will be announcing tonight, and he will be keeping a close eye on both the immediate and long-term interventions,” he said.

Read more: State of the Nation in the shadow of the water tanker

There has been growing political pressure for Ramaphosa to intervene in Joburg’s ongoing water crisis, after a multi-system failure left many parts of the city with dry taps for weeks. Mayor Dada Morero has been criticised for failing to adequately address the situation, while opposition parties have taken issue with Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s comments about showering in a hotel.

Civil society bodies have called on the president to declare the crisis a national disaster to unlock emergency funding and capacity. Morero, however, denied the need for such a declaration at this stage at a press conference on Wednesday.

Gauteng has been plagued by water supply issues for years. There have been at least three governmental interventions to address the water crisis in the province since 2023, including a water task team set up by Ramaphosa himself in March 2024, none of which have borne fruit.

The latest water cuts have prompted frustrated and thirsty residents to take to the streets in recent days to protest against prolonged water outages that are affecting an increasing number of areas in the City.

Read more: No water for 24 days, Joburg protesters scream at city leaders

The growing protests have cast a pall on Ramaphosa’s big Sona week in a crucial local government election year.

‘I had to go shower at a hotel’

Ramaphosa has deployed Hlabisa and Majodina to deal with Joburg’s water troubles because the protests are growing and the response of local and provincial politicians to the crisis has been woefully inept.

At a press conference on Wednesday, led by Majodina, together with Deputy Water and Sanitation Minister David Mahlobo, Lesufi, and Morero, the province’s leadership showed just how out of touch it was with the impact of the crisis on the city’s 5.5 million residents.

Read more: ‘Getting water is like finding a job’ — Orange Farm residents frustrated after years of unreliable supply

“People think that if there is no water, [that] ourselves [and] our families [have] got special water. We don’t… In some instances I had to go to a certain hotel so that I [could] shower to go to my commitments,” Lesufi told journalists.

“We also go through the same inconveniences [as] any other person – there’s no special water or a special pipe that is designed to service [some people and not others].”

He then promised that “the problem is almost fixed”.

Lesufi received immediate backlash online for his statements about going to a hotel when faced with a water outages.

On Wednesday night, Lesufi attempted to walk back his earlier comments and sought to clarify his statement, apologising for “any misunderstanding or offence” he had caused.

“The premier acknowledges that his statement in which he made reference to a hotel may have been interpreted in a manner that suggested that the impact of water challenges differs based on one’s position in society. This was never his intention.

“Premier Lesufi wishes to make it unequivocally clear that water shortages and supply interruptions are an inconvenience and hardship to all residents of Gauteng, regardless of social, economic or professional standing. Access to water is a basic human right, and any disruption affects families, communities, businesses and institutions across the province,” read a statement from his office. DM