Water shortages in Johannesburg spark voter frustration and off-grid solutions

In Johannesburg, leaking and broken pipes are causing the city to lose more than a third of its daily water supply, roughly 655 million litres, prompting daily hardship for residents. Young people like Thandani Masangu spend hours searching for water in Hillbrough, where taps have been dry for over three years, while a municipal truck only refills a nearby tower block. Johannesburg Water’s senior manager for innovation and technology, Zakhele Khuzwayo, says the network is largely over half a century old, and maintenance has been repeatedly deprioritized.

As the National Treasury suspended funding due to fiscal mismanagement, the city’s budget of 97.1 billion rand remains unfunded, deepening the crisis. Wealthier citizens are drilling boreholes and installing private storage, a trend estimated at 10,000 boreholes in Gauteng over the past decade. The water woes have become a potent symbol of municipal failure, eroding support for the African National Congress ahead of elections expected by November.