Durban - UGU District Municipality is under siege as its infrastructure is being destroyed - allegedly by disgruntled fired employees.
The latest act of sabotage was the burning of a 16 000-litre water tanker and the bombing of a water reservoir.
The district municipality’s spokesperson, France Zama, said on Tuesday morning they discovered that the Harding reservoir had been damaged. They had also discovered that a water tanker at the municipality’s Park Rynie depot had been burned.
“The damaged reservoir supplies water to hospitals in the Harding area, and this act of sabotage has crippled our ability to supply water in these areas. Water is splashing around the streets of Harding due to opened and damaged scours,” he said.
The Daily News previously reported that Ugu had dismissed 121 employees who were part of an illegal strike. The workers were striking over alleged corruption at the district municipality and also in solidarity with 14 employees who had been suspended for misconduct in January. The strike has been on for about a month.
Zama said: “Our residents are enduring the difficulty of water supply disruptions due to the prolonged labour unrest, which has manifested itself in the destruction of municipal infrastructure, coupled with acts of intimidation and threats to our operations.”
Zama told The Daily News he could not provide an exact value for the damage caused, as an assessment had not been completed. He did, however, say that the damage since the strike began last month amounted to “millions”.
He said five municipal vehicles, which included a truck, had been burned in the past few weeks.
“They want to create a state of anarchy,” he said, referring to the saboteurs. “It will take years for us to recover It is taking us back.”
George Henderson, DA caucus leader in the Ugu council, said: “It is sad that somebody goes and sabotages our only source of water. People are suffering.”
Henderson said each time Ugu had a strike, there were acts of sabotage. Although cameras could not be placed everywhere, they advocated for them to be placed at strategic spots.
Mthandeni Ngcobo, South African Municipal Workers’ Union Ugu district chairperson, denied that it was their members who had engaged in these acts.
“We have no knowledge of this and this should be investigated by police. Our workers would not do such things as it would be extreme for them. Workers are part of the community and they would not sabotage their own resources,” he said.
Ngcobo said he suspected it was people who were looking to score tenders.