Community members from Kokosi in Fochville on Joburg’s West Rand on Tuesday protested because their taps have been dry for over a month.
Chaos erupted in the streets of Kokosi, Fochville, on Tuesday as hundreds of people protested for their water to be restored.
Earlier this week, GroundUp reported that taps in the West Rand community have been dry for over a month. Some people at the protest said they have not had a consistent water supply for between three and six months. The crisis in Kokosi and other surrounding areas stems from the Merafong Local Municipality’s R1.4-billion debt to Rand Water.
Since last year, Rand Water has been implementing water cuts as a debt collection mechanism.
On Tuesday, protesters blocked the busy N12 and R500 highways. Police attempted to disperse the crowds by firing teargas and rubber bullets, but the R500 remained closed for most of the day with burning tyres.
Protesters say they were tired of their pleas for help being ignored. Several people we spoke to complained that the municipality’s failures have forced families to fetch water from burst pipes, boil contaminated water, or go without bathing for days.
Hundreds of residents blocked the N12 and R500 highways early on Tuesday morning.
“It is a matter of life, death, and dignity,” said community leader Ramafala Ramatshosa. “When you don’t have water, your health is compromised. The municipality has stripped us of our basic rights.”
Resident Gabriel Mandawe said, “I stopped going to church because I could not bathe. This is no way to live.” Mandawe, who works at Fochville Secondary School, said the toilets are a mess because there is no running water.
Another resident, Koos Fourie, said residents have been forced to survive on dirty water from fire hydrants. “We try to boil it and add jik, but not everyone can afford that. We just hope this protest brings change.”
He worries that without water, people in the area could experience health problems if the situation continues.
A memorandum was handed to Merafong Mayor Nozuko Best, but she left without addressing protesters or the media. The community demanded that water be restored by Thursday.
Merafong spokesperson Thabo Moloja blamed unpaid rates bills for the problem, including unpaid debt from mines. He said this meant the municipality could not keep up with Rand Water’s R39-million monthly charge.
© 2025 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, not tracking users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.
Poor road infrastructure: Damaged roads hinder transportation and economic activity.
twiddle twix
Israel: You have two cows. You expand their farmland every year.
Blue Despair
Fun South African Fact: Water is not all there is to drink in this thirsty country! South Africa’s Cape Winelands have around 560 wineries and 4 400 primary producers. Included in the Cape Winelands region is Route 62, considered the longest wine route in the world. That alone is good reason to visit South Africa if you haven’t yet been!