AFTER working without water for two days, the Road Traffic Inspectorate’s licensing office in Mariannhill was forced to temporarily shut its doors on Thursday afternoon (6 February).
According to a staff member who preferred to remain anonymous, they did not have any water since before lunch time on Tuesday 4 February.
“For two days we weren’t told what the problem was. Then on Thursday morning, we were told by management that there was a fault with the water pipes. We were given two portable toilets which could not flush properly,” said the source.
She said due to using unhygienic portable toilets, some employees had picked up a gastric flu virus and even vomited at the office. The company then arranged to transport those wanting to use the ablution facilities to its regional office in Aubrey Road, Westmead in Pinetown, or alternatively employees could use the public toilet at the service station in the vicinity.
Thandi Makhaye, the admin supervisor on duty, refused to comment, while employees were forced to turn away customers wanting to collect or apply for their drivers’ licenses.
According to Mark Scharneck, the station commander at RTI, the municipality was attending to a burst water pipe on Tuesday and Wednesday, and hence the water was shut down. However, during that time, workers removed a piece of pipe that was connecting the RTI premises to the main water line.
“We called another plumbing company, JB Plumbers, last night, who after digging around the water main and following the pipe line, discovered a piece of the pipeline had been removed. They managed to fix the problem and to my knowledge everything is back in order as of 1.30pm today,” said Scharneck.
The offices will reopen on Friday 7 February.
