Most South Africans get the short end of the stick when it comes to service delivery and services are not as forthcoming as it is in affluent areas - this is no secret.
While already struggling to keep the lights on with high electricity prices and high food costs, the looming increase in value added tax (VAT) remains a headache for all citizens.
IOL took a look at how residents in South Africa are battling with service delivery woes, particularly water and electricity.
Speaking to IOL, *Lauren Jacobs, 51, originally from Cape Town, has been living in the west rand of Johannesburg for 15 years and is a single mother who lives with her daughter and elderly mother and works from home three days a week.
“My mother lives with me and is 79 years old. She relies on chronic medication, as do I. We suffer from water and power outages at least every four to six weeks. The longest period we have been without water has been three days and electricity it could be anything from five to seven days,” she said.
Jacobs said to live under these circumstances was not easy.
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“We constantly have to make a plan and buy water. This becomes very expensive. Our community does make provision for tankers, but to get to the tankers is difficult at times. With regards to electricity, there is just nothing we can do. We have to take our meat to family to keep in their freezer, or if you do not have that option, you have to throw things away. It is really an expensive way of living,” Jacobs said.
She also expressed her distaste regarding service delivery in her area.
“The action from the City of Joburg is not very good. They are not forthcoming with information,” she explained.
By the time of the interview, Jacobs and her family were experiencing another power outage and given no updates or reasoning as to why this was happening. There was no load shedding at the time.
“At least, this time it was only out for eight hours. Which is a short period of time for us and we are grateful for that. It’s always just a matter of [from the City]: ‘we are looking into the matter’, or ‘we will let you know’. When and if you do get feedback, it is very few and far between. It never says anything concrete,” she said.
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Jacobs explained she is appalled at the lack of service delivery.
“The lack of service delivery in our area makes us feel like second-class citizens. Like they couldn’t be bothered at looking after the Coloured communities. I feel like paying rates monthly for a service we are not getting is unfair and ridiculous,” she said.
Jacobs said the lack of services received infringes heavily on the household budget.
“If there is no water, we have to buy. We all know water does not come cheap from the shops. If there is no electricity, either we have to throw food away or we have to drive up and down to people who are keeping our food. It’s a really sad state of affairs and I feel for mothers with babies, I feel people dependent on oxygen and grateful that we are not in that situation,” she said.
Jacobs called for local government to pull up its socks and put the people first.
“I feel there is a lot to be done. There is a long way to go for service delivery to get to the level that we need. Whether we’re going to get there or not is another story entirely,” she said.
Caucus leader for the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng, Councillor Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku said it was backing the call for a full parliamentary inquiry into Gauteng’s water crisis.
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“This issue must be escalated to the national legislature, and we urge Executive Mayor Councillor Dada Morero to take this call for accountability seriously. On November 11, 2024 in a joint Statement between the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and the Minister of Water, and the subsequent press briefing by Joburg Water on November 28, 2024, Joburg Water unveiled their response to the water crisis in the City. It would seem that this was yet another talk shop,” Kayser-Echeozonjoku said.
At the time, the City of Joburg committed itself to:
- An increased panel of contractors to ensure a 24 - 48 hour response time to water leaks including sewer leaks;
- An increased number of response teams on weekends to uphold the 24 – 48 hour response time;
- An increase in the number of water trucks;
- An increase in the number of trucks to respond to water and sewer leak repairs;
- Throttling of water supply between 9 pm and 4 am to enable water reservoirs to recover overnight and;
- Accelerating leak detection to respond to leaks quicker.
While load shedding has been on and off since the start of 2025, residents such as Jacobs and her family continue to have power outages aside from the load shedding schedule which lasts for up to 12 hours.
IOL
*Name has been changed to protect her identity.
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