All Amatola Water employees who were involved in industrial action were back at work by Tuesday and no further disruption to water supplies was expected. This response from Amatola Water to questions from Talk of the Town came after Ndlambe Municipality alerted residents of Klipfontein, Marselle, Bushmans River and Kenton-on-Sea that their water supply had been disrupted as a result of industrial action by staff at the Bushmans River reverse osmosis plant.
in a media statement on September 3 2024 Ndlambe Municipality said it had come to their attention that Amatola Water employees were engaged in an unathorised industrial action.
The statement said the resulting interruption to services was not limited to the Ndlambe municipal area and other municipalities serviced by Amatola Water had also been affected.
“The municipality is actively engaging with senior management at Amatola Water to explore potential solutions and minimise the disruption,” said the statement signed by municipal manager Rolly Dumezweni. “In the interim, the municipality is working on alternative arrangements, including the distribution of water through tanker trucks, to ensure that residents have access to water.”
The municipal, manager apologised for the inconvenience and urged community members to use water sparingly. “Please rest assured that the municipality is making every effort to resolve this issue as swiftly as possible,” he said.
However, Amatola Water spokesperson Amanda Skritch, responding to Talk of the Town’s questions, said, “We [were not] advised of any staff from the Bushmans River reverse osmosis plant that are on strike. The Bushmans river plant was fully operational throughout the duration of the industrial action which… ended today. All employees involved are back at work and there are not potential water supply disruptions.”
An Ekuphumleni resident told Talk of the Town that their area had no water on Tuesday morning and that a water tanker haed been providing water to residents and businesses.
“But we only have water for a few hours every day anyway,” the resident said. “For example when I got back home this afternoon, as usual, there was no water, although we had water in the morning.”
A Boesmansriviermond resident said they had been without water “for five or six hours” on Tuesday morning, but that the supply had been restored by the afternoon.
The Daily Dispatch reported that South Africa’s second biggest township came to a standstill on Tuesday as water supplies to Mdantsane were cut: essential workers from the Amatola Water Board (AWB) were protesting over claims of corruption and maladministration, DispatchLive reported.
In neighbouring Makana Municipality, frustrated residents are still scarred from a two-week water outage in Makhanda caused by industrial action.
A post on the DA Facebook page says the DA MPL Vicky Knoetze, DA Shadow MEC for Cooperative Governance Retief Odendaal and DA Frontier Constituency leader Jane Cowley met with COoperative Governance MEC Zolile WIlliams.
“The delegation also managed to get a commitment to finding sustainable Solutions and the establishment of platforms to discuss a turnaround strategy for Makana municipality and the people living there,” the party said.
Makana staff engaged in undeclared industrial action when a cash flow problem in the municipality saw them paid their salaries for August, but not overtime that they had worked.
The topography of the town, combined with historic poor management of the town’s bulk supply infrastructure, drought and reticulation reported to be leaking 40% of what it carries, requires valves from the supply to be closed at night and opened very early. In other words, after hours. Despite repeated calls for a shift system for essential workers in water and electricity, extra payment for after hours work remains the norm.
