Strikers target town’s water supply

STRIKING municipal workers sabotaged the town’s water supply on Monday afternoon this week, and are thought to have been responsible for the destruction of a municipal sub-station on Monday night.

They struck the water supply at about 3:00pm, when four men in a municipal bakkie were seen entering the fenced off area that encloses the reservoirs on Vryheid Hill. They used a key to open the gate. The person who saw them is obviously not going to be identified.

Water from the Klipfontein purification plant is pumped up to the reservoirs, and gravity feeds it into the system of pipes that supplies water to Vryheid, Bhekuzulu and Lakeside. The saboteurs, probably using a heavy hammer, punched a fist-sized hole into the Klipfontein in-pipe.

Fortunately, the reservoirs must have been relatively full because no reports of dry taps had been received on Tuesday morning. A private contractor was employed to repair the pipe.

The electrical sub-station that was destroyed is located on the corner of South Street and Stretch Crescent, the incident happening at about 10:15pm on Monday night. Parts of Bhekuzulu were affected.

This is not the first time that striking municipal workers have inflicted malicious damage to municipal property. The did the same earlier this year, and although their actions are criminal, it is understood that no criminal charges were laid against any individual or his union.