It’s only a crisis when the whole city wakes up dry, says Joburg mayor on water - News24

While Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero admits there are water infrastructure problems in Johannesburg, he does not think they are at crisis levels yet.

This is what he told Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh on the digital talk-show, the Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh Xperience (SMWX), broadcast on YouTube on Monday night.

In the hour-long show, Morero spoke about his roots in the struggle for democracy, how he rose through the ranks in Johannesburg and where he currently stands within the party.

While he acknowledged there were “issues” in the municipality, he said he was “convinced we’re on the right track”.

This, despite the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation putting Johannesburg’s non-revenue water at 44.8%. Non-revenue water is water the city pays for but does not receive money for; this includes leaks (which make up 35% of non-revenue water), water given to indigent communities, and stolen water.

But he said the municipality needed more resources and that the funding model for municipalities needed to change.

“We’re losing a lot of water,” he admitted. But when asked, he said he still did not believe that there was a crisis in Johannesburg.

“It’s a crisis when the entire Johannesburg wakes up, and there’s no water anywhere, and there’s no electricity anywhere,” he said, adding that where we are now is “that there are challenges”.

🚨NEW EPISODE: @DadaMorero on the 2026 election, coalitions, Joburg and more. Ayeye! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/HVfyJK05AW

He said more water needed to be added to the system, and the water system needed to be balanced so it supplied evenly throughout the city.

“Now, there are consumption issues with the heat, which means that for the next few weeks, there will be a battle with the water supply,” he said.

Morero said these “challenges” were not the result of leaks or infrastructure problems, but of consumption, and “Rand Water says they can’t give us more water than they’re licensed to give”.

This evening, Johannesburg Water joined Executive Mayor, Cllr @DadaMorero, in Crown Gardens to engage residents of Wards 54, 55 and 124 on water supply challenges, recovery interventions and their concerns.#JoburgServices #CommunityEngagement📸 Office of the EM @DadaMorero pic.twitter.com/GByoFug0XF

For the last few years, during the hot months from October to February, Johannesburg has experienced water outages.

While “consumption” has often been blamed for water use, the Department of Water and Sanitation has told residents that it refers to extraction from the Vaal, rather than individual use.

On Friday, bulk water supplier Rand Water released a statement saying that it had warned its municipal customers “that consumption by several municipal customers had reached exceptionally high levels, placing severe pressure on the water supply system”.

News24 surveyed 5,001 registered voters to reveal who leads, what voters want fixed, and which coalitions South Africans could support.

News24’s free audiobook for subscribers this month is ‘Checkmate: How Shoprite Checkers rewrote the rules and won’ by Steven Boykey Sidley.

From Babita Deokaran to Mpho Mafole, whistleblowers remain at the forefront of News24’s intensive investigative work.

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.