A vehicle from the Ugu District Municipality’s department of water and sanitation was torched on Tuesday night.
According to the South Coast municipality, the vehicle was set alight by unknown suspects while parked at a standby plumber’s home in Murchison, Port Shepstone.
Municipality spokesperson France Zama said the vehicle was used by their standby team of plumbers to respond to urgent water-related problems.
He said those on the scene extinguished the fire.
“We have opened a case with the police and they are investigating the matter. We are truly disturbed by these occurrences as they have an adverse impact on the service delivery turnaround time,” said Zama.
The municipality has been experiencing serious water shortages, which has badly affected communities, schools and hospitals
Ten municipal vehicles, mostly those belonging to the water department, have been torched since the start of the year.
According to Zama, the torching has cost the municipality over R3.5 million.
“We as the municipality are already struggling and this is taking us back in terms of providing service delivery to the communities.”
He said there were no spare vehicles available.
Zama confirmed various communities in the Port Shepstone area had been without water for a week.
He said this was due to infrastructure damage. The municipality suspects the infrastructure was vandalised.
“The police need to help by making arrests as we have opened all the cases with them for investigation,” said Zama.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala confirmed a case of malicious damage to property was being investigated by Port Shepstone police in connection with the latest vehicle that was set alight.