Still no water – and still no clear answers from Ugu

With many South Coasters without water for more than a month, protests both planned and illegal, are looming.

People want answers – when will this crisis be resolved, and how does Ugu District Municipality plan to to achieve this? In some quarters, the blame has been laid squarely on the lack of political leadership from the governing party which is yet to make a public announcement on how it plans to tackle the situation.

ALSO READ : Water update from Ugu District Municipality

The Herald has been inundated with calls, as well as pleas on social media from people – including ANC members – wanting to know why no answers were forthcoming.

However, Lower South Coast Regional Task Team (RTT) coordinator Xolani Luthuli dismissed claims of lack of political leadership and lack of will from the ANC to resolve the problem.

The ANC is the governing party in the Ugu region and in all four local municipalities within the district. “Political direction must come from the ANC RTT to resolve what’s happening at Ugu, but it won’t because they are fighting among themselves,” said a senior ANC councillor who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals.

However Mr Luthuli told the Herald that while they might not have communicated with the public yet on what steps the party had taken to find a permanent solution to Ugu’s water woes and labour unrest, they were “busy working on it”.

According to Mr Luthuli, last week political leadership met with Ugu management and councillors to find out what the real problem was, and how Ugu planned to resolve those problems.

“Ugu gave us a plan, but we were not convinced.

“We told them that before they fired so many people, they should have had a plan in place to ensure that water supply was not affected,” he said. “Ugu indicated it would provide water tankers as an immediate solution to the crisis.” Following the meeting with Ugu, Mr Luthuli said they had met with the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) leaders.

“The meeting was more than finding out what their issues were – it was also about finding a solution and ensuring that there was no further interruption to the water supply.”

Mr Luthuli said Samwu had made demands, which included the reinstatement of the workers who were fired.

“Because of the complexity of the matter, and more so because it’s also a legal matter, we could not take immediate action but had to look at ways to mitigate the crisis.”

Samwu chairman, Mthandeni Ngcobo said the union was awaiting feedback from the ANC.

According to Mr Luthuli, they were under pressure to give instructions to Ugu, which they could not do.

“We’ve got to find a balance and focus on finding a long term solution to the problem. This won’t happen overnight because the current water issues and labour unrest are just a symptom of the real problem at Ugu.”

He added that Ugu needed to focus on finding a lasting solution internally, such as correcting its billing system and enhancing revenue collection.

“Ugu has enough staff, it’s just that they need to put in more effort.”

Meanwhile residents with no water have aired their frustrations on various social media platform, and with letters to the Herald, emails and many phone calls.

The newspaper has been unable to answer these questions on when supply would be restored as Ugu District Municipality had not provided any information on its plans to address the problem, aside from saying water tankers would be deployed.

However, when contacted for comment yesterday (Wednesday), Ugu spokesman France Zama said Ugu’s plan was two-fold: firstly, to ensure stability in the workforce by removing all employees who are refusing to work, a process which, he said, was underway.

The second part of the plan, Mr Zama said, included getting 10 drivers for area north who are currently being tested to see if they are fit.

“Area south has 10 running tanks. Recruitment is being done to get more workers which will allow us to provide water to the people because currently we are without adequate staff.”

A statement received from Mr Zama shortly before going to press indicated that the municipality had terminated a further 51 employees from Port Shepstone and surrounding depots.

Municipal manager DD Naidoo is still on sick leave and was unavailable for comment.

A planned non-political march, led by the group #Stoptherot is expected to take place in the Port Shepstone CBD on Monday, February 27.

According to organisers, the march will focus on the lack of water and the lack of action from those in charge.

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