Not a Polit­ical Tool, but a Human Right. 

Water is not a polit­ical tool, but a human right. 

Com­munit­ies exper­i­en­cing out­ages are not con­cerned with polit­ical argu­ments. 

By David Mahlobo, Deputy Min­is­ter of Water and San­it­a­tion. 

Over the past few weeks, the water out­ages affect­ing com­munit­ies in the City of Johan­nes­burg have not just been dis­tant reports dis­cussed only in meet­ings and brief­ing rooms; they have, at times, unfol­ded in the very area where I reside, in the City of Tsh­wane. The moments that stay with me most are not the tech­nical brief­ings or oper­a­tional updates, but the vis­ible doubt, dis­ap­point­ment and worry on the faces of people in my neigh­bour­hood when the taps run dry. These exper­i­ences have rein­forced, in a deeply per­sonal way, the daily real­ity that mil­lions of South Afric­ans are facing, and they have strengthened our resolve as a Min­istry to approach water chal­lenges dif­fer­ently – with urgency, humil­ity and a clear com­mit­ment to doing more and doing bet­ter, to sup­port the com­munit­ies who con­tinue to carry the heav­iest bur­den of unre­li­able water sup­ply.

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