Two weeks without water leads to protesters barricading roads in Soshanguve
“Last week we had load-shedding from 08:00 to 21:00, and now we are two weeks without water. I don’t see a need to pay my municipal bills anymore.”
Soshanguve residents barricaded major roads this morning protesting a two-week water outage.
Residents built a “wall” of bricks across the road and scattered rocks and bricks to halt traffic flow out of the area.
Strike for water 💧 now.. Soshanguve block l pic.twitter.com/ipyS5Qn7nR
— Vhusafheli Neduvhuledza 🇿🇦 (@vhusafheli_) February 1, 2023
The protest started yesterday, with residents barricading Aubrey Matlakala Road near Tshwane University of Technology with huge piles of rubbish. Officials said that the situation was volatile and urged motorists to avoid the area.
Resident Lerato Ndlovu said that she was protesting because she pays her bills of more than R1 500 a month, yet did not get what she paid.
She said that she could no longer pay this amount since the services she is paying for aren’t being delivered.
“Last week we had load-shedding from 08:00 to 21:00, and now we are two weeks without water. I don’t see a need to pay my municipal bills anymore.”
What’s more, Ndlovu has lost her income when her tenants vacated due to the electricity and water crisis.
I'm in soshanguve block L. We've been without water for over 12 days now. We have over 11 primary and high schools in our area, not to mention TUT and Tshwane North College. From Thursday until now, learners are sent home at 10am. Community has been protesting since Monday pic.twitter.com/X2JBwXS9co
— Prince Ntuli (@PrinceNtuli7) February 1, 2023
Letabo Masemola said he was protesting on behalf of someone who was unwell after suffering a stroke.
He said that the water outage was affecting his ability to look after his patient well including bathing and struggling to find potable water.
“The municipality doesn’t provide us with water and they told us that we would only get water on February 4. This is not acceptable to me and my community,” said Masemola.
On Wednesday morning, the metro said that the water supply was improving.
“All our reservoirs have recovered,” it said in a statement.
“Mooikloof is at 53%, Grootfontein 20% (still low) but the Grootfontein Tower is at 73%. It supplies The Hills area that didn’t have water for long a period. Atteridgeville HL (supplies Kalafong) is 35%, Laudium is full at 99%, Garsfontein 58% and Soshanguve reservoirs 38% and 43%.”
“The water outage is almost resolved,” the statement concluded.
Soshanguve SAPS spokesperson Constable Nhlanhla Zondi confirmed that the water and power outage protests was ongoing.
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