Residents of the Thembelihle informal settlement near Johannesburg struggle to access water despite nearby tankers filling up daily for deliveries elsewhere.
Thembelihle, home to about 20,000 people southwest of Johannesburg near Lenasia, relies on communal taps installed under apartheid. No new pipes have been added since democracy, and water often stops flowing through the taps.
Residents watch dozens of water tankers fill at a Johannesburg Water point across the road for Region G and then drive past without stopping. Simphiwe Zwane, a mother and community activist who has lived there for 30 years, said: “Every day, I wait till the early hours of the morning hoping that water will come.”
Johannesburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala confirmed that Thembelihle receives no tanker deliveries. She attributed the issue to high demand from illegal connections. Residents including Zwane say these connections, made decades ago due to too few taps, are not what they want and that the state has denied constitutional rights to sufficient water.
Pensioner Lindiwe Mthethwa said she has never seen a water tanker in the area. Another resident, Mzwanele, stated: “It is like they don’t view us as human.” The City of Johannesburg has spent more than R650 million on water tankers over the past five years.