‘Engineered dysfunction’: City of Tshwane disconnects its own water reservoir for non-payment

The DA has accused the City of Tshwane of not having its house in order after it switched off power to its own reservoir as part of a campaign to collect outstanding debt.

DA Tshwane Spokesperson for Finance Jacqui Uys said the DA was outraged after the city disconnected its own water reservoir due to non-payment of accounts.

Tshwane’s water reservoir disconnected for non-payment

“On Wednesday, the city’s credit control department, furnished with an official disconnection notice, cut power to the pump stations of one of its own reservoirs. City teams meant business as they proceeded to rip the breaker out of the Suiderberg Reservoir, to prevent power from being switched back,” she said.

While the power has since been restored to the reservoir, Uys said it is not the first time the power supply to the Suiderberg Reservoir has been cut.

“In December 2024, supply was also cut, leading to dry taps in the suburbs supplied by this reservoir for days, at the time valves and the telemetry system were also stolen and vandalised,” she added.

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Uys said during the first incident, the DA had to intervene by engaging the city’s finance department to get power restored.

“Then, the department explained that this was a system glitch and would be rectified. Unfortunately, it is now clear that this was never rectified as today the breaker was removed – this step is only taken when a second credit control action is issued on a property. Thus, these are not two isolated instances,” she said.

Uys said the DA has raised concerns with the city’s policy for interdepartmental financial transfers and has called for reports in the Section 79 Finance Committee on the topic.

“Mistakes like this are unnecessary service delivery failures in a city that already fails its residents. Additionally, it then also costs the city financially as they must spend money to disconnect and reconnect power, install a new breaker and still suffer losses from vandalism,” she said.

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Uys said this was not a case of the city collecting what is owed.

“It is a mere interdepartmental transfer in the city itself; this is an example of how the city’s systems are not working, and it costs the city and its residents,” she said.

City of Tshwane accused of ‘engineered dysfunction’

WaterCAN’s Dr Ferrial Adams said this incident is not accidental.

“It is engineered dysfunction. The government is operating in silos: departments don’t talk to each other, provinces act in isolation, and coordination across levels is virtually non-existent. We’ve seen this pattern repeatedly, and it leads to poor, fragmented decisions that directly harm communities.

“On top of this, some government entities are failing to pay for basic services themselves, deepening the crisis and accelerating the collapse of already fragile systems,” she said.

Adams said this systemic failure must be addressed with urgency and accountability.

The City of Tshwane was yet to comment at the time of publication.

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