JoburgCAN welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to deploy national leadership to respond to Johannesburg’s worsening water outages. But this intervention must be understood for what it is: a response compelled by sustained public pressure after communities exhausted every “proper channel” available to them, said JoburgCAN Executive Manager Julia Fish.
President Ramaphosa has instructed the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Pemmy Majodina, and the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Velenkosini Hlabisa, to intervene in the ongoing crisis in the City of Johannesburg.
“Residents’ associations and community groups have long sought answers and partnerships to address the water crisis, but only after public protests did ministers and government at local and provincial levels respond,” said Fish. “As recently as three days ago, Minister Majodina said she was ‘washing her hands’ of the issue, calling it a local government problem. Letters to Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s office returned stating they were ‘not aware,’ leaving residents with no other recourse than to protest.”
Fish said civil society and affiliated community groups stand ready to support practical solutions on the ground — but only if government engages seriously, transparently and with urgency.
“We hope that the intervening ministers now catalyse real, community-based solutions,” she said. “In some areas, people have gone 25 days without water. That is not an inconvenience — it is a crisis.”
JoburgCAN is calling for immediate, measurable action, including transparent incident communication, daily restoration targets per affected area, and a coordinated emergency plan that treats prolonged outages as a disaster-level event, not a routine disruption.
About JoburgCAN
JoburgCAN (the Johannesburg Community Action Network) is a civil-society network that supports residents’ associations and community groups to share real-time, on-the-ground information about service delivery and infrastructure failures, and to advocate for practical, accountable responses from the City and relevant authorities.
For more information visit: www.joburgcan.org.za
Media queries:
Jonathan Erasmus – Media Co-ordinator
073 227 6075 | info@mycommunitysolutions.co.za
12 February 2026