Why are Douglasdale residents experiencing repeated water and electricity interruptions? Are certain parts of the suburb more affected than others? How are fault reports prioritised, and is there a long-term plan to resolve recurring outages?
These are among the questions formally submitted to Johannesburg Water and Eskom on behalf of Douglasdale residents, following months of ongoing service delivery issues that have disrupted daily life and work.
The queries were prompted by Douglasdale resident Jirisha Naicker, who has kept an extensive record of water and electricity outages in the area since May last year.
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Her documentation includes dates, durations, and reference numbers logged with service providers each time services were interrupted. Naicker said the repeated outages, some lasting days, have been both disruptive and emotionally draining.
Her records reflect multiple water outages, including a two-day interruption in July 2025, low pressure and supply losses in December, and further disruptions on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Electricity outages were also recorded throughout 2025, with at least ten separate incidents logged between May and November.
Ward 115 councillor Mark van der Merwe acknowledged that persistent water interruptions are largely the result of ageing infrastructure, both within and outside the ward.
Van der Merwe said that while water infrastructure remains a challenge, Ward 115 has fared significantly better than most areas in the city, due to sustained investment. He said the City of Johannesburg experiences an average of approximately 2.3 water and sewerage-related issues per ward per day, roughly 70 per month.
In contrast, Ward 115 has recorded about 10 such issues per month over the past year. He attributed this to more than R150m invested in replacing ageing water infrastructure across Jukskei Park, Johannesburg North, and Old Fourways, as well as an additional R48m spent on upgrading the rising main sewerage line in Craigavon.
On electricity supply, Van der Merwe said he does not believe Douglasdale has a systemic power problem. “I live on that grid, and we’ve had maybe four or five power outages in the last six months. Power outages I’m not worried about.”
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He explained that many electricity outages are caused by accidental damage, including trenching work by utilities or residents unknowingly driving spikes through underground cables. “All you need is for a gardener or somebody putting up an electric fence to drive an earthing spike through the cables, and that takes out a whole lot of residents.”
Eskom’s spokesperson Daphne Mokwena confirmed that the constant power outages in Douglasdale are due to cable faults.
“There are various factors that result in electricity supply interruptions: Planned supply interruptions while we conduct maintenance on our infrastructure and unplanned supply interruptions that may be because of a technical fault, network failure, electricity theft, or network overloading. In the case of Douglasdale, the outages on our records were due to cable faults.”
In correspondence sent to Johannesburg Water, Fourways Review asked for clarity on the causes of repeated water interruptions, whether ageing infrastructure is responsible, how old the pipelines in Douglasdale are, how fault reports are prioritised, and whether there is a timeline for permanent resolution.
Johannesburg Water has remained silent despite follow-ups.
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