The water disaster has turn out to be a defining function of municipal service supply in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, with the best impression felt in poor and marginalised communities.
In October 2023, the Johannesburg Water Disaster Committee took a step that many thought would go nowhere: it wrote to the South African Human Rights Fee concerning the worsening water disaster throughout town.
“We documented the outages. We raised the impression on our households, faculties, clinics and livelihoods. We demanded accountability. At this time, we’re seeing the results of that sustained stress.”
The fee introduced this week that it had launched an investigative inquiry into Gauteng’s sustained and deepening water disaster, warning that the scenario would possibly quantity to a systemic human rights violation slightly than a collection of remoted service supply failures.
Its Gauteng provincial workplace stated the choice adopted a big quantity of complaints from communities throughout the province detailing persistent water shortages, ageing and poorly maintained infrastructure, governance breakdowns, contamination dangers and recurring service supply disruptions.
The fee stated the disaster had turn out to be a defining function of municipal service supply in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, with the best impression felt in poor and marginalised communities.
“The impression of the water disaster is disproportionately borne by poor and marginalised communities, residents of casual settlements, faculties, healthcare services, early childhood improvement centres and social care establishments,” stated the investigative inquiry’s phrases of reference.
The results embody compromised sanitation, elevated public well being dangers, disruption of training and healthcare providers and the erosion of human dignity.
“The disaster has additionally produced secondary systemic harms, together with the emergence of casual and exploitative water distribution economies generally known as ‘water tanker mafias’, who profit from the dilapidated infrastructure.
“In lots of communities, extended outages have created dependence on unregulated non-public water tankers, entrenching inequality, profiteering and the commodification of a constitutional proper.”
Municipalities lacked enough purposeful water tankers, logistical capability and coordinated emergency distribution methods, leaving them more and more depending on non-public suppliers, it stated.
The fee famous that the dimensions, persistence and systemic nature of the failures raised prima facie issues of a systemic human rights violation, warranting a proper public inquiry.
At its core, the inquiry reframes the disaster past infrastructure failure, to look at whether or not the state is assembly its constitutional obligation to progressively realise entry to enough water.
Entry to water is a foundational human proper, with the Structure inserting obligations on the state to respect, shield, promote and fulfil it. The place entry is unreliable, unsafe or unequal, the impression extends past service supply failure to have an effect on rights to dignity, equality, life, well being and a protected surroundings.
The inquiry, scheduled for 19 to 21 Could 2026, will assess the extent, nature and root causes of Gauteng’s water disaster. This consists of infrastructure breakdowns, ageing methods, planning and budgeting constraints, governance weaknesses and insufficient emergency response mechanisms.
It is going to additionally study whether or not municipalities, water boards and nationwide departments have taken cheap steps to make sure entry to water consistent with constitutional obligations.
A central focus would be the lived expertise of affected communities, the place outages have turn out to be entrenched and important providers are routinely disrupted.
The fee will assess impacts on public well being, training, sanitation and dignity, and decide whether or not the scenario constitutes a systemic violation of human rights.
It warned that if systemic failures have been confirmed, the implications might lengthen past service supply reform and require pressing corrective motion to handle widespread violations of elementary rights.
The fee stated its inquiry was supposed to contribute to sturdy options guaranteeing equitable, constant and dignified entry to water throughout Gauteng.
As a part of the method, the SAHRC has referred to as for written submissions from affected communities, authorities departments, municipalities, water boards, civil society organisations, researchers, advocacy teams, non-public sector actors and members of the general public.
Submissions could tackle the causes of the disaster, its impression on communities, present interventions and proposals for sustainable water provision.
The Johannesburg Water Disaster Committee stated it was making ready a submission to the fee.
The deadline for written submissions is 30 April 2026, after which chosen stakeholders could also be invited to current oral proof throughout hearings.
Written submissions and correspondence could also be delivered by hand or emailed to the Gauteng provincial workplace at Sentinel Home Workplace Park, Parktown, Johannesburg, or by way of [email protected].
