People living in South Africa’s richest city hit with water and electricity problems
The City of Johannesburg has been hit with sporadic water shortages that, in some areas, last for months on end and threaten thousands of jobs.
These sporadic shortages have been coupled with power outages due to deteriorating distribution infrastructure in the city.
Some studies indicate that around 100,000 outages have been reported in just nine months, as the city’s population growth continues to fuel demand that its infrastructure cannot handle.
The collapse in basic services has resulted in thousands of residents leaving Johannesburg to live elsewhere in South Africa, particularly Cape Town and other areas in the Western Cape.
Worryingly for the city, this semigration trend is driven by the wealthiest of its residents, and it is expected to result in Cape Town displacing Johannesburg as the richest city in Africa by 2030.
This trend is not only concerning for Johannesburg, as the city remains vital to South Africa’s economy, contributing around 16% of the country’s GDP and being home to five million people.
It remains the seat of power for many of the country’s biggest companies and is home to the biggest stock exchange in Africa, the JSE.
This has led many to believe that Johannesburg is simply too big to fail, with its demise considered a microcosm of South Africa’s collapse.
The challenges in South Africa’s richest city have become so dire that big business has offered to help the local government revive Johannesburg in any way possible.
Business for South Africa (B4SA), in its latest quarterly update, said it is currently assessing whether it can help the local e-government and devote resources to fix the city.
“There is such a vast interest in the city as an economic hub. To see it declining is very, very problematic,” Discovery CEO Adrian Gore said.
“There is low-hanging fruit. We think there is a lot of expertise, there is a lot of involvement in the city anyway from business.”
Big business has been able to pour resources into particular areas of the city, such as Sandton Central and Rosebank, to ensure they remain functioning and fit for the headquarters of South Africa’s biggest companies.
However, big business’ involvement is limited by the ongoing political volatility in the city, with it having ten changes of mayor since 2016.
In March, President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed disappointment with the state of the city, prompting apologies and promises of renewal from local politicians.
Running out of water
Johannesburg appears to be running out of water, with bulk supplier Rand Water saying it cannot simply provide more water to the city.
Many of the issues with Johannesburg’s water crisis stem from a lack of maintenance of the distribution infrastructure managed by the city, with 45% of water lost between the bulk supplier and the end user.
Water can be “lost” in the distribution chain through physical losses like leaks or water that is supplied but not billed due to revenue collection weaknesses and illegal connections.
The Department of Water and Sanitation and Rand Water have made it clear that the City of Johannesburg receives enough water from the bulk supplier to meet its needs.
Rand Water currently supplies the maximum allowable volume of water to the city, but most of this gets lost along the way, raising demand beyond what is actually needed to supply Johannesburg.
The department has emphasised that Rand Water is supplying sufficient water to Joburg, pointing to local mismanagement by Joburg Water as the reason for shortages.
Some of these shortages have been severe, with areas left without water for weeks and social unrest breaking out in the areas worst affected.
Coronationville, Selby, and Marshalltown have been without water for over nine weeks, with business owners in these areas warning that the outage could result in over 4,000 job losses.
Joburg’s water crisis has been matched by its severe electricity challenges in recent years as the city failed to invest in upgrading and maintaining infrastructure to cope with a growing population.
A power data investigation by Daily Maverick found that 97,715 power outages were reported in just nine months, with more than 5,000 serious enough to take out entire suburbs at once.
This was the first time an independent attempt was made at quantifying the scale of Joburg’s power crisis.
The decline of water, power and roads infrastructure in Johannesburg has become a political flashpoint in South Africa and a symbol of how unstable coalition governments are causing the decline of some of the country’s biggest cities.
The city is currently run by an ANC-led coalition, with the Democratic Alliance looking to regain control in next year’s local government elections.
The opposition has announced Helen Zille as its mayoral candidate, with some reports indicating the ANC may break with tradition and select a high-ranking politician from outside of its provincial structures to contest the election.
Images of Joburg’s collapse
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