Thirsty KZN South Coasters appeal for water

Caxton Community newspapers are appealing to their readers to come to the rescue of thousands of people living on the KZN South Coast who have been without a stable water supply for two weeks.

And there is no end in sight.

Some are the poorest of the poor and they have had to rely on store bought water because of an on-going strike by workers at the Ugu District Municipality.

Communities were being supplied by tanker, but the municipality was forced to stop the service because a ‘pressure group’ started intimidating drivers.

Working on a skeleton staff of senior people, the municipality has worked tirelessly to restore water to areas. However, the moment they get water flowing, pipes and valves are sabotaged.

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A court interdict has been ignored by workers, police and security firms are on high alert and the crisis has been elevated to the provincial government which declared it ‘a disaster’.

Currently, there is a ‘Mexican stand-off’ between management and workers who are demanding back-pay and ‘overtime’ following a previous strike over a cancelled ‘death and disability’ insurance scheme.

At that stage, the municipality capitulated and refunded millions to the workers to get them back to work, but they also implemented a ‘no-work, no pay’ policy.

Hence the latest strike.

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While some South Coast residents have the luxury of drawing water from swimming pools, there are many thousands who don’t. Unemployment is high and money scarce. Yet they are now forced to buy bottled water to live.

Caxton is making a general appeal to readers of its newspapers to drop off bottled water to your local newspaper office.

The water will then be trucked down to the South Coast Herald offices in Port Shepstone for distribution to the neediest communities.

For more information, e-mail: bevisf@dbn.caxton.co.za or phone 039 6820155.