Just four Amatola Water board employees are keeping drinking water flowing to large parts of the province.
Water supply is threatened in Buffalo City Metro, Mthatha, Bhisho, Grahamstown, Alice, Port Alfred and Stutterheim and even St Albans Prison in Port Elizabeth.
The supply is hanging by a thread with hundreds of Samwu workers on an unprotected strike.
Eleven of the board’s treatment plants are being run this morning by only four senior technical employees. The plants supply bulk drinking water to an area covering 45794km², which includes Amatola district, 40% of Buffalo City Metro (BCM), and part of the Chris Hani district.
Last night Samwu’s ADM regional chairman Victor Potolo said: “If workers are on strike this weekend, there will be no water.”
A weary and distressed Amatola Water CEO Lefadi Makibinyane said last night that the operators were exhausted.
The plants normally supply 110 megalitres a day, but after over 368 workers aligned to Samwu withdrew their labour earlier this week, supply is down by about almost half, at 55 to 60 megalitres, said Makibinyane.
The strike is about politics and not about pay or work conditions explained Makibinyane, who was desperately awaiting private operators to step in today and provide operational support to the plants.
The four stalwarts keeping the water flowing have been on their own since Wednesday, when the wildcat strike hit.
Yesterday, BCM spokesman Sibusiso Cindi announced that water had run out in an area covering the inland half of BCM from Berlin, including the Bhisho provincial government.
Tankers were being rolled out.
At the heart of the crisis is a demand from Samwu to speak to Nomvula Mokonyane, Minister of Water and Sanitation, about their demand for the sacking of Amatola board chairwoman Nokulunga Mnqetha, whom workers accuse of being involved in fraud.
Mnqetha was arrested by members of the Hawks on May 23 in connection with allegations that while she was CEO of Amathole District Municipality’s (ADM) Aspire economic development agency she defrauded it of R310000.
Mokonyane’s spokesman Mlimandlela Ndamase is on record saying the minister felt the charges had nothing to do with her subsequent appointment as Amatola Water board chairwoman and she was innocent until proven guilty.
Potolo said workers were in “panic” mode.
“We are dealing with mob psychology. This could lead to deaths if people drink untreated water.
“Workers don’t want to go back until the minister does something. Even if she just writes a letter to say she is removing the chairperson. We tried as leadership to get them to go back to work.”
He said the four managers were keeping the plants going but “they don’t know how to backwash” (clean the water).
Prisons in Middledrift and Middelburg, Patensie and Cecilia Makiwane Hospital could soon be without water.
Potolo said Samwu had written to parliament yesterday asking MPs to order the minister to deal with their issues.
Makibinyane said Samwu had met Mokonyane in Sterkspruit two weeks ago asking her to come to Amatola Water and appeared to get a commitment from her.
However, on Wednesday, Samwu leaders received a legal letter from Mnqetha threatening them with defaming her in their petitions to the minister.
“That did not go down well with labour,” he said.
“They decided to down tools if the minister did not see them by Friday last week.”
He said their demand to see the minister was out of his hands and she was unlikely to come because her programme was pre-arranged and could not be altered.
He said Samwu had picketed the head office since last Friday and had urged staff to join them.
“On Friday the organisation came to a standstill. I was out of office and on Monday gave them three hours of intense deliberation. We had a board meeting via tele-conference. I pleaded with the board to escalate the matter to the minister to meet with workers but it did not happen.”
He said he was instructed to get an interdict declaring the strike illegal, which he obtained from the East London High Court yesterday.
“When you run to court, you have lost hope,” he said. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
Water cuts loom large in E Cape
Water supply is threatened in Buffalo City Metro, Mthatha, Bhisho, Grahamstown, Alice, Port Alfred and Stutterheim and even St Albans Prison in Port Elizabeth.
The supply is hanging by a thread with hundreds of Samwu workers on an unprotected strike.
Eleven of the board’s treatment plants are being run this morning by only four senior technical employees. The plants supply bulk drinking water to an area covering 45794km², which includes Amatola district, 40% of Buffalo City Metro (BCM), and part of the Chris Hani district.
Last night Samwu’s ADM regional chairman Victor Potolo said: “If workers are on strike this weekend, there will be no water.”
A weary and distressed Amatola Water CEO Lefadi Makibinyane said last night that the operators were exhausted.
The plants normally supply 110 megalitres a day, but after over 368 workers aligned to Samwu withdrew their labour earlier this week, supply is down by about almost half, at 55 to 60 megalitres, said Makibinyane.
The strike is about politics and not about pay or work conditions explained Makibinyane, who was desperately awaiting private operators to step in today and provide operational support to the plants.
The four stalwarts keeping the water flowing have been on their own since Wednesday, when the wildcat strike hit.
Yesterday, BCM spokesman Sibusiso Cindi announced that water had run out in an area covering the inland half of BCM from Berlin, including the Bhisho provincial government.
Tankers were being rolled out.
At the heart of the crisis is a demand from Samwu to speak to Nomvula Mokonyane, Minister of Water and Sanitation, about their demand for the sacking of Amatola board chairwoman Nokulunga Mnqetha, whom workers accuse of being involved in fraud.
Mnqetha was arrested by members of the Hawks on May 23 in connection with allegations that while she was CEO of Amathole District Municipality’s (ADM) Aspire economic development agency she defrauded it of R310000.
Mokonyane’s spokesman Mlimandlela Ndamase is on record saying the minister felt the charges had nothing to do with her subsequent appointment as Amatola Water board chairwoman and she was innocent until proven guilty.
Potolo said workers were in “panic” mode.
“We are dealing with mob psychology. This could lead to deaths if people drink untreated water.
“Workers don’t want to go back until the minister does something. Even if she just writes a letter to say she is removing the chairperson. We tried as leadership to get them to go back to work.”
He said the four managers were keeping the plants going but “they don’t know how to backwash” (clean the water).
Prisons in Middledrift and Middelburg, Patensie and Cecilia Makiwane Hospital could soon be without water.
Potolo said Samwu had written to parliament yesterday asking MPs to order the minister to deal with their issues.
Makibinyane said Samwu had met Mokonyane in Sterkspruit two weeks ago asking her to come to Amatola Water and appeared to get a commitment from her.
However, on Wednesday, Samwu leaders received a legal letter from Mnqetha threatening them with defaming her in their petitions to the minister.
“That did not go down well with labour,” he said.
“They decided to down tools if the minister did not see them by Friday last week.”
He said their demand to see the minister was out of his hands and she was unlikely to come because her programme was pre-arranged and could not be altered.
He said Samwu had picketed the head office since last Friday and had urged staff to join them.
“On Friday the organisation came to a standstill. I was out of office and on Monday gave them three hours of intense deliberation. We had a board meeting via tele-conference. I pleaded with the board to escalate the matter to the minister to meet with workers but it did not happen.”
He said he was instructed to get an interdict declaring the strike illegal, which he obtained from the East London High Court yesterday.
“When you run to court, you have lost hope,” he said. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
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