DA to take Joburg Water, City to court over water crisis

DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille at a media briefing on the Johannesburg water crisis on Wednesday.

@DAGauteng/X

The DA plans to take legal action to compel the City of Johannesburg and its water entity to address severe outages,some as long as 21 days.DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille announced the move at a press briefing in Bruma,and said water was a constitutional right.The DA also wants a national state of disaster to be declared and urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to address Gauteng’s water crisis in the upcoming State of the Nation Address.The DA wants to force the City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Water to fulfil their obligations and deliver water to residents.

To do this,the party will turn to the courts,federal council chairperson and the DA’s Johannesburg mayor candidate,Helen Zille,announced at a press briefing at the party’s offices in Bruma on Wednesday.

She was flanked by DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga and DA MP Cilliers Brink,who is the party’s Tshwane mayoral candidate.

The party also presented its plans to resolve the water crisis,including pushing for a national state of disaster and for President Cyril Ramaphosa to address the province’s water woes when he delivers the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday.

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In addition,the DA is exploring legal avenues to make Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina streamline communication from Rand Water to residents.

READ | ‘What do we want? Water!’: Joburg residents take to the streets over dry taps

Wednesday’s press briefing comes amid severe water outages in parts of Gauteng,with some areas in the City of Joburg reportedly having been without water for 21 days,including Melville and Parktown.

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💪🏼💧 Gauteng needs a water rescue plan now,and we are ready to offer it.

Follow the DA’s press briefing on Gauteng’s water crisis here: https://t.co/CYRmKHHLd2#NoDryTapsGauteng pic.twitter.com/YYPIrZMztB

— DA Gauteng (@DAGauteng) February 11,2026

Earlier on Wednesday,News24 reported that some residents took to the streets in protest.

Zille said Joburg had the worst water crisis,and that there were 22 critically endangered water systems.

WATCH | Eldorado Park hears Zille’s stark warning: Joburg’s issues like ‘Armageddon’

“We know what triggered the latest crisis. It was an explosion at Zuikerbosch,which is a purifying plant of rainwater and that had a knock-on effect... We all know what is wrong,and in fact Rand Water has got a plan to deal with it,but the best plan is the plan that my colleagues,councillors in the City of Johannesburg,devised and that was the turnaround strategy for Joburg Water,” she added.

Residents protest the lack of water supply in Johannesburg.

Diedeliff Gertenbach/Supplied

Zille also said the DA in Johannesburg had been consulting with lawyers since last year.

“They’ve been reading every document that we can provide for them on the water crisis,and they have looked at the water plan,the water recovery plan that was adopted by the Johannesburg council two years ago,and they say we have a clear case to go,” she said.

She said the first point was that water was an absolute constitutional right.

“It’s not a nice-to-have. It’s a right,and we look at the extent to which that right has been violated,” Zille said.