More businesses have come forward to share their struggles after going three months without water, with one saying it is considering shutting down as it can no longer afford to spend R10,000 on water every second day.
On Wednesday, Ren-Form MD Damien du Sart and safety, health, environment and quality manager Stewart Sande said the water situation was costly, as the company spends about R10,000 every other day to refill its JoJo tanks.
Ren-Form is an integrated digital communication and printing company that prints ballot papers, posters, flyers, calendars and annual reports, among other services.
“We rely heavily on water for our operations. Our machines rely on water for cooling. We are buying our own water. There are about 200 employees here; we are a manufacturing company, so working from home is not an option. Sanitation becomes a problem, especially for our female staff,” said Du Start and Sande.
When Business Day visited the premises, there were notices on bathroom doors that they were out of commission.
‘We may close our doors’
If the water crisis was not resolved urgently, the Ren-Form bosses said they would be forced to buy more JoJo tanks to keep operations going but warned: “If it carries on like this in the long run, then we might as well close our doors.”
Business Day understands that Plastic World, a plastics solutions company, has also been affected by the water crisis.
David Ose, a manager at car dealership HM Autos, said: “This has been going on for a very long time now. We have to bring about 100l of water to work every day. Our customers can’t use the bathroom.”
4,000 jobs at risk
This week, the DA warned that up to 4,000 local jobs could be at risk as a result of the water crisis, which has been affecting the residents of Coronationville, Selby and Marshalltown for the past nine weeks.
DA caucus leader Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku said factory owners in those areas had also been affected, “which could lead to job losses of close to 4,000 South Africans”.
“Despite numerous requests to the executive mayor [Dada Morero] to directly intervene, these factory owners have been left on their own, with the city denying them their basic right to water,” she said. “The DA met factory owners who are on the verge of closing because of no water, and Johannesburg Water is still unable to clearly diagnose what the problem is with the Hector Norris pump.”
‘Not a drop for three months’
Businessperson Lionel Feldman, owner of Interiors Unlimited, told Business Day this week that businesses in Selby had gone without water for three months. His business is a niche company specialising in custom-made designer furniture, curtaining and upholstery, with clients including insurance companies Hollard, Old Mutual and Santam.
“We employ 17 people, but now only six are coming to work because of the toilet issue. Our businesses are suffering; we have been without water for three months. Not a drop of water is coming out of our taps; it’s insane. Water is a constitutional right.”
Feldman said he reached out to the ANC and the DA, which recently announced federal council chair Helen Zille as its Joburg mayoral candidate for the 2026 municipal elections.
“Helen Zille personally came to my factory. She flew in water technicians from Cape Town. Whether she was doing that for political points, I don’t care; I’m a businessman and I’m very passionate about my business,” Feldman said, adding he did not hear “a word from the ANC”.
Political spotlight on Joburg’s dry taps
Morero’s communications team said it would respond later on Wednesday. But Morero himself told Business Day recently his administration planned to raise R100bn in the next five years to fix water pipes, roads and power cables that lie in tatters. He vowed to push capital expenditure (capex) past R10bn next year as he courts lenders to help plug the R100bn infrastructure backlog.
Johannesburg Water MD Ntshavheni Mukwevho told a breakfast event recently that the city had a turnaround strategy to address its water woes. He said Johannesburg Water had an infrastructure renewal backlog of about R27bn.
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana last week rallied behind reforms aimed at addressing the deteriorating quality of services in most of the metros, saying they would help improve the local authorities’ financial positions and stop their dependence on grants.
He said that by addressing the key three trading services of water, sanitation and electricity, it was hoped these reforms would help unlock the economy and improve service delivery.
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