Regular raids by police on illegal mining operations behind Poole Street, Florida, do little to deter the highly organised zama zamas (illegal miners) from going about their business.

In February, during yet another illegal mining operation with Florida police, Florida South Residents Association chairperson Rodney Churchyard came upon the spot where illegal miners source water: A dug-up and broken freshwater supply pipe.

At the time, the pipe was covered with building and other rubble to stop it from spraying water into the air.

Churchyard reported the matter to Johannesburg Water (JW), who promptly sent out a team to investigate.

Unfortunately, this was the beginning of a months-long struggle to get the entity to repair the pipe.

“JW eventually requested that I arrange a police escort for them to come and repair the pipe, as it is in a dangerous area. I did, but had to sit there with the police and wait. JW showed up more than an hour late. By this time, the police officers had left.”

This same scenario occurred once more.

Churchyard says JW returned to fix the pipe about a month later, only to abandon the job because they did not have the right materials on hand.

On September 3, JW announced via their WhatsApp channel that they are on site to repair the pipe, and that residents can expect to be without water for about five hours.

“Irritation at the short notice aside, I was relieved that the work would finally be done,” says Churchyard. “Only to receive another notice a few hours later that JW needed a critical coupling to complete the job. This coupling would have to be manufactured, and thus, water would be off longer than expected.

“What I can’t understand is that they’ve been to the site on numerous occasions. How can they not have known that they would require a coupling to fix the pipe?”

The pipe has since been fixed, but not before leaving a large portion of residents with dry taps for two days as JW opened all the hydrants in the vicinity to relieve water pressure while they were working.

Churchyard adds that his fear now is that the zama zamas will just break the pipe again to get access to water.

The Roodepoort Record has approached JW for comment and will publish it as a follow-up article once received.