On Friday, 14 August, frustrated Johannesburg residents took to the streets of Melville after days without water. Some residents told Daily Maverick the outage had lasted four days, while others said they had been without water for more than a week.

âThis is no longer a question of occasional service interruptions or an ageing system experiencing temporary pressure. What we are experiencing is a chronic and unacceptable failure of basic service delivery,â said the Melville Residents Association.

By the time the protest ended, water had been restored in most of the areas where Daily Maverick spoke to residents.

Residents have experienced more than 50 days without water so far this year, according to the Melville Residents Association, which works out to over 20% of the yearâs 226 days to date.

Freedom Ndlovu, who works as a car guard on 4th Avenue in Melville, pointed to sewage running down the street as he expressed his frustration with the crisis.

âThings like this happen when thereâs a shortage of water,â he said, describing the impact of the outages on surrounding businesses.

âCustomers canât even flush the toilets. This thing is killing us softly,â Ndlovu said.

The latest water-supply data from Johannesburg Water shows why Melville has been particularly vulnerable. On Friday, the Commando water system was operating at just 45% capacity, the lowest level among the systems shown in the Cityâs latest update, placing it in the âSupplying Fairlyâ category.

The update specifically flags Hursthill 1 and 2 as remaining on bypass and warns that high-lying areas supplied by the system may experience low pressure or no water at times. Melvilleâs higher-lying areas are supplied via the Brixton Reservoir, which is linked to the same system.

The toll on businesses

Several business owners and employees said recurring water disruptions have affected their operations for years, while some said power outages have compounded the problem.

Many business staff were reluctant or dismissive when approached for comment, saying that repeated complaints and media reports had done little to change the situation, with outages instead becoming more frequent or prolonged.

Aza Wilfred, who has worked at the Urban Beauty Cafe salon on Main Road for more than a decade, said water outages have been affecting the business for years, disrupting basic services such as washing clientsâ hair. Wilfred was among several business employees who told Daily Maverick that water trucks intended to alleviate the problem rarely arrive to deliver water.

Fridayâs outcry follows widespread water protests across Johannesburg in February, where Melville, Parktown West and Brixton residents took to the streets after prolonged outages. The demonstrations prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina and Cooperative Governance Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa to Johannesburg to urgently address the crisis.

Chef Shepard Simango, who works at Reserve Café on 4th Avenue, expressed frustration at the ongoing disruptions and said water trucks often did not arrive. He said the longest outage at the café had lasted more than a month. Simango also criticised the lack of long-term solutions.

âThe last time there were protests in Melville, we got water, and the lights stayed on. A week later the outages started again,â Simango told Daily Maverick.

He said the constant water and power cuts were not only affecting businesses directly but were also beginning to deter customers. When customers encountered dirty toilets that could not be flushed, he said, some became sceptical about whether the cafe met sanitary standards.

âSome of our regulars arenât coming as often. You ask them âwhy?â, and they say that they donât feel comfortable leaving their homes because of the effect the outage is having on them,â he said.

During July, Daily Maverick recorded 281 water-throttling and outage incidents, with the Sandton system the worst-hit.

âWater and power take turnsâ

Hotel Hope Interiors employees Thabo Ndlovu and Augustine Mwakawoka told Daily Maverick that water and power outages had become the norm over the years, affecting them both as employees and as residents of the community.

âThe water and power take turns every day,â Mwakawoka said.

âItâs like theyâre in a toxic relationship,â Ndlovu added jokingly.

The pair also run Hotel Hope Ministries childrenâs home in the community, which is affected by the constant power and water cuts.

âImagine? How do you make baby formula when thereâs no water and electricity? How do you keep things hygienic?â Ndlovu said.

âThe water trucks come once in a blue moon. Itâs unbelievable that anyone survives in this place,â Mwakawoka added.

Melvilleâs problems are also playing out against a much wider deterioration in Johannesburgâs water infrastructure. Data from the Gauteng Water Security Dashboard shows an average of about 140 pipe leaks a day between June 2025 and June 2026.

The scale of the problem is reflected in the Cityâs water losses. Johannesburg lost 207 billion litres of water in the 2025 financial year, while the City has spent R650-million on water tankers over the past five years.

WaterCan executive director Ferrial Adam criticised what she described as state officialsâ denial of the severity of Johannesburgâs water crisis. Johannesburg Water had not responded to Daily Maverickâs request for comment at the time of publication.

Broken promises

Melville is not the only Johannesburg community grappling with prolonged water interruptions. In Kensington East, residents have also raised concerns about prolonged supply failures following a switch between supply systems.

A letter, dated 13 August, from the Water Crisis Committee to Johannesburg Water says the area was switched from the Yeoville Reservoir back to the Alexander Park Reservoir at the end of June, while Johannesburg Water repeatedly told residents that they remained on the Yeoville system until 11 August.

The committee has also raised concerns about delays to repairs at the Alexander Park Reservoir. It said repairs had not yet started and were expected to take at least a year. It also raised concerns about an interim bypass pump intended to support high-lying residents, saying it had remained at the technical-drawing stage.

The letter also records residentsâ concerns that the switch had not been accompanied by meaningful public participation, with residents saying they were either unaware of the meetings or unable to attend them.

For residents and businesses, the water outages have also become part of a wider municipal service-delivery crisis. People speaking to Daily Maverick this week used each opportunity to raise complaints about other failing services, including power outages and a lack of rubbish collection. DM