WaterCAN welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to urgently deploy the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Pemmy Majodina, and the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Velenkosini Hlabisa, to intervene in Johannesburg’s escalating water crisis - even at the cost of their attendance at the 2026 State of the Nation Address. This is a significant acknowledgement that Johannesburg’s water collapse is now an emergency requiring national attention.
However, this intervention has not happened in a vacuum says WaterCAN Executive Director Dr Ferrial Adam.
“It follows an escalating pressure campaign over several months led by WaterCAN and its partners, including the People’s Water Forum, which has organised protests, marches and memorandums demanding action and even delivered an urgent open letter to President Ramaphosa on 11 February 2026, calling for Johannesburg’s water crisis to be treated as a national disaster,” said Adam.
“Had civil society not taken to the streets, had we not written directly to the President, and had the media not consistently told the truth of communities’ lived reality, this level of action would not have happened.”
Read:The Peoples Water Forum Letter sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa
WaterCAN further notes the South African Human Rights Commission’s call for South Africa’s water crisis to be declared a national disaster, warning that the country’s water failures have reached crisis proportions and require a broad, integrated, coordinated response. The SAHRC’s position reinforces what communities have been saying for months – that water justice and our right to water must be a national priority.
However, deploying ministers to Johannesburg is not enough.
“Johannesburg needs the President to go beyond acknowledgement and use the full authority of the Presidency to bring political and operational leadership to a city and province that are clearly out of their depth and out of touch with the scale of what residents are enduring. Large parts of Johannesburg continue to experience prolonged outages, collapsing pressure and unpredictable supply, with severe knock-on impacts on households, schools, clinics and local economic activity,” said Adam.
WaterCAN therefore reiterates the People’s Water Forum’s central demand:
- Declare the Johannesburg water crisis a national disaster to unlock urgent resources, compel coordination across all spheres of government, and force measurable, time-bound action.
“Johannesburg cannot be run on tankers and excuses. Workers who recently went on strike shouldn’t be blamed. What we are witnessing are years of neglect coming to fruition. A city of this size cannot be stabilised without coordinated leadership, transparent public reporting, and urgent technical intervention at the scale the crisis demands,” said Adam.
WaterCAN will continue to mobilise communities, document impacts, and pursue accountability until Johannesburg’s water system is stabilised and residents’ constitutional right to water is protected.
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Across South Africa, WaterCAN’s volunteers and citizen scientists are monitoring drinking water and sanitation failures, uncovering risks, and demanding action from those responsible. We challenge polluters, call out government negligence, and stand with communities whose rights to safe water and sanitation are routinely violated. Your support keeps this watchdog work alive and powerful.
For Media Enquiries contact WaterCAN Communications Manager on Jonathan Erasmus 073 227 6075 or email media@watercan.org.za.
