Johannesburg – Patriotic Alliance deputy president and Johannesburg MMC for Roads and Transport, Kenny Kunene, has accused DA Federal Council chair Helen Zille of misleading the public after she posted a video of herself swimming in water she said was from a pothole in northern Johannesburg.
Zille sparked debate after sharing footage of herself doing backstroke in a water-filled hole, which she claimed highlighted poor service delivery in the city.
“Here we are, with a free and wonderful Saturday afternoon swim. I can even do the backstroke over here… backwards doggy paddle,” she said.
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Zille explained that the issue has persisted for three years, disrupting residents who struggle to access their homes, and criticised failed repair efforts that worsened the problem.
“This pool has been here on and off for three years. It’s the result of a burst pipe, it kept bursting again and again. Neighbours can’t get out of their driveways. People ask for the council to come and fix it, they came and fixed it with a front end loader and burst the pipe again. This is what people have to live with in the city of Johnnesburg,” she said.
However, Kunene dismissed her claims, insisting the water was not in a pothole but in a reinstatement site where Johannesburg Water was repairing a burst pipe.
“It’s not a pothole, it’s a reinstatement,” Kunene said, adding that Zille had misunderstood the situation and was being sensationalist.
He further criticised her actions as inappropriate, saying she had used the incident for political point-scoring. “She went to do a very unhygienic thing,” he said, adding that she had “made a fool of herself.”
Kunene also defended the city’s work on infrastructure repairs, saying multiple reinstatements were underway across Johannesburg involving different entities, including Joburg Water and City Power.
Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero also condemned Zille’s actions, warning that such behaviour could encourage unsafe conduct among children.
“You are encouraging children in the townships to swim when there is work that is being done,” Morero said, referencing past incidents of children drowning in similar areas.
The row has added to ongoing political tensions over service delivery and infrastructure maintenance in the city.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
