The Democratic Alliance (DA) is urging Rand Water to replan what the party calls a “ridiculous” mid-December water shut-off for large parts of the City of Johannesburg, which it said will effectively steal Christmas from millions of Johannesburg residents.

Rand Water has scheduled maintenance of Eikenhof and Zwartkopjes pump stations, between December 13 and 16.

DA Johannesburg Shadow Infrastructure MMC Nicole van Dyk said Rand Water’s announcement of the December maintenance schedule was an indication of “poor planning and utter mismanagement”.

The party said it would be writing to Rand Water, and Johannesburg Water to demand the process be rescheduled, to avoid “Rand Water stealing Christmas, like the failing Grinch that it is”.

Van Dyk pointed out that although the maintenance was set to take place over 86 hours, experience had shown that a schedule was not watertight and that restarting the water supply took days.

“The December maintenance of both the Eikenhof and Zwartkopjes pump stations, will shut off hundreds of thousands of homes’ water supply. This very same system has in the past, with additional water being supplied by Rand Water to stabilise it, taken up to two weeks to recover after maintenance,” she said.

She explained that two weeks to recover, in the warmest month of the year, whilst most people attempted to spend quality time with their loved ones, was unacceptable.

“The DA calls on Rand Water to reconsider this disastrous route - failure to properly maintain pump stations during the year should not steal Christmas from Joburg residents. This sounds and looks like an emergency repair rather than one that has been well-managed. And if it is an emergency Rand Water is to be condemned in the harshest terms,” she stated.