The City of Johannesburg has turned its attention to Balder Road in Douglasdale, after years of escalating for it to be repaired.

Dada Morero, mayor of Johannesburg, visited the site after on March 31, after Helen Zille drew widespread attention to the issue during her now-viral ‘swim’ visit.

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Morero said Johannesburg Water began work on March 29, flushing out water, sealing the leak, and replacing sections of the steel pipe. “Full road reinstatement is expected to follow, with Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) set to come on board once the pipe repair is confirmed stable.”

He confirmed that the area had experienced a similar issue in the past. “We are aware that three years ago, the same area had a burst.” However, he urged residents to log new service requests whenever issues arise, encouraging the use of the city’s Joburg Connect app to report faults and track progress.

This is exactly what residents, together with the ward councillors, have done for three and half years, however, nothing came out of it.

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They followed the same procedures suggested by Morero to both Johannesburg Water and JRA.

He also commented on Zille’s approach to getting the city’s attention.

“We also ask Zille not to swim where there’s a burst, because the risk of that, it encourages children in the townships to swim when there’s work that is being done on the burst pipes.

“We’ve seen in the past where children die as a result of swimming in either manholes or where a pipe burst has been repaired. So, we want to request to her that it is not a good example to say so.

She might just have stood just next to the pest pipe.”

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