Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, put his 'head on the block' and promised the people of Phoenix, Tongaat and Verulam that water would be restored to their taps on February 15.
Mchunu met with Phoenix residents at the Shastri Park Community Hall on Sunday to address their concerns about the ongoing water outages.
He apologised to them for not meeting the previous deadline of restoring water, as promised, by January 28.
He said as of today (Sunday), when he liaised with the teams working on the ground to restore the water, everything was on track for water to be flowing back to taps by Thursday.
"My head is between two very hard blocks. If we miss the deadline of the 15th, the blocks will close in on my head. I am not sure if I will sleep on the 14th, but I will return to the community of Phoenix on the 15th, or the 16th, when the water is restored to thank the community for their patience," Mchunu said.
Pastor Mervin Reddy, the public relations officer of Voice of Phoenix, said the organisation was confident the minister would make good on his promises.
“We know that the minister is doing everything in his power to ensure water is restored. We have confirmed that the teams and engineers are working overtime to make sure that the deadline to end this humanitarian crisis is met," he said.
Advocate Vusi Khuzwayo, chairman of the Umngeni-Uthukela Water Board, said: “Many heads are on the block for the water issue to be resolved, not just the minister’s head. We never thought that there would ever be a need for us to wait for water. We are supporting the minister by doing everything we can do to ensure the deadline is met and the people have water.”