Buffalo City Metro is battening down the hatches for another week of power and water outages amid a protest that the SA Municipal Workers Union admits has gone rogue.
Many BCM residents might have to sit it out for a week without water and lights, BCM manager Andile Sihlahla told the Dispatch.
However, the city has employed emergency measures to see that refuse is collected and and city assets protected.
He said these measures, which included hiring extra security to secure property, would take a week to be put in place.
“The water challenges are mainly in the Mdantsane area. In some areas valves were taken out and in others pipes were damaged. We are working to restore the services in all the affected areas and this will part of the emergency measures we have adopted,” said Sihlahla.
Affected residents are using gas and wood fires, and candles and torches.In anticipation of more riots and destruction of property, a large group of BCM law enforcement officers and traffic officers were seen camping between the Mdantsane City Mall and the municipal building in NU6 on Monday morning while a large group of public order police officers, some from as far as Cradock, were spotted keeping a close eye on a service station near Mdantsane’s NU1 entrance.
On Friday the substation in Quigney’s Fitzpatrick Road was torched, leaving a number of businesses and residents in the dark.
Worst hit in the area was the East London's iconic Friesland milk bar industrial ice cream shop. Owner Kishore Cassiram said he had to discard over 1,000 litres of ice cream on Saturday. He woke up to the damage on Saturday and has been closed since then.
“I have lost a lot of business. I have to start all over. This is a big cold room it needs a three-phase generator that I have just gotten and am trying to assemble,” said Kishore.
Residents, who have had to live with filth in the streets, either uncollected or deliberately strewn about, or without water and lights for the past five days are also starting to have to throw away food from their dead fridges.
Peggy Boma from Ilitha told the Dispatch that food had started rotting in her fridge. She has been fetching water from Berlin to cook and wash. “This is terrible. There is literally nothing we can do,” she said.
Vandals struck on Friday, attacking a range of BCM infrastructure. Transformers and buildings were torched and even Christmas decorations were pulled down. Samwu went on strike last Tuesday over the implementation of new and higher wages based on a new job evaluation report.
Although Samwu has denied responsibility for the damage to property, it has conceded that their protest may have indirectly led to the damage. Samwu campaigns convener Zola Capucapu said their legitimate protest was infiltrated with criminal elements who were not Samwu members.
“We can never be part of the destruction of property. We live in these townships. We cannot cut our own water and lights,” said Capucapu.
The union held a general meeting at the Orient Theatre on Monday, where it was resolved not to stage any demonstrations on the streets but to continue to withhold their labour from the city.
Capucapu said they had met with the ANC provincial and regional leaders and the metro’s management, but still could not resolve the two main issues of implementing the salary scales on a specific date.
“We have agreed on all other issues but the issues of bonuses and the implementation of the jobs evaluation report recommendations,” he said.
Berlin Ratepayers Association’s Khaya Witbooi on Monday said the destruction and loss of services was unspeakable.
Witbooi said the town has been without electricity since Friday, and their water ran out over the weekend.
“This has affected us so badly that I am running short of words for how I can describe the effects it has brought to our small town. All I can say is that this is devastating.
“We are told that our transformer near the Berlin Primary was torched and it will take a long time to fix and have electricity restored in the area.
“Even refuse has not been collected and this place now resembles a pigsty with waste everywhere. I don’t think what is happening is affecting the intended people, but innocent ratepayers who had nothing to do with why employees went on strike,” said Witbooi.
BCM ward 29 councillor Andre Swart said his area in Gonubie was affected by the municipal failure to collect refuse since last week. He said some people in the area “have taken it to extremes and dumped piles of refuse at municipal offices” in the area.
He said the fact that some refuse collection trucks had been burnt “means that it will take long to address this challenge”...