“We Need Water” residents march in Lenasia South, Ennerdale and surrounds

On 13 March, community members from Wards 120, 122, 7 and 6 embarked on a peaceful march demanding water led by the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) and local councillors.

The march began at the BP on Sheffield Road in Lenasia South and ended at the Johannesburg Water (JW) depot in Ennerdale where residents gathered to demand urgent action over ongoing water outages affecting their communities.

Ward 120 councillor Puseletso Nzimande said the march was organised after SANCO heard repeated complaints from residents struggling with inconsistent water supply. “We are here because SANCO has heard the cries of the community about the ongoing water outage. We are facing an issue of throttling,” she told GLOBE POST.

Ward 120 SANCO chairperson, Themba Ngobeni told GLOBE POST that water shortages have been a long-standing problem in the area: “Water has been a very long problem in our community. We have seen people embarking on strikes before, even closing down the Golden Highway, but the issue has not been resolved. “As we peacefully march to the JW depot in Ennerdale, we hope our concerns will be heard and that water supply will be restored to normal. Water is a basic human need, and our community should not have to suffer like this.”

Addressing residents upon arrival at JW, Nzimande said: “In our region we have a problem of influx, which is part of the reason we are experiencing water shortages.” She added that the outages have been noticeable over the past few weeks, with many households experiencing no water on Sundays and Mondays.

“We spoke with the region, and they said that workers stop work on Fridays, which implies that there are no teams managing the water system on Saturdays and Sundays,” said Nzimande.

She called on JW officials to reinstate the throttling team to operate over weekends while their issues are being resolved.

She warned that the community could escalate action if their concerns are not addressed: “For now it is a peaceful march, but if they do not respond to our cries we will wake up at 3am and block the Golden Highway.”

Ward 120 committee member for infrastructure, Joy Govender told GLOBE POST that a memorandum had been handed over to JW officials: “The delegation has handed over the memorandum to Patrick from JW. We are now waiting for a follow-up meeting with them.”