The Ugu District Municipality in Port Shepstone in KwaZulu-Natal has paid workers in its water and sanitation department R5 million to settle a year-long dispute about a group life scheme.
The problem led to widespread water interruptions in southern KwaZulu-Natal over the past year.
The municipality says the balance of employees’ contributions was repaid last week after the district’s water supply system came to a standstill due to labour action in November.
Ugu South Coast Tourism CEO, Justin Mackrory says, “It took place, in fact just as the season was about to start. So all the rectifications and the disruptions, shall we say, ceased. So we do not anticipate any major impact on the influx of visitors. Obviously they have phoned ahead. That pre-empted the season obviously. So I think the customer and the visitors to the South Coast can be very comfortable that their stay over the season will be as expected.”
Meanwhile, Margate resident Samantha Botha says she’s forging ahead with efforts to lay criminal charges against workers who allegedly damaged water infrastructure during the drawn out dispute.
“A lot of people are complaining about thousands that they have spent to erect boreholes, big boreholes, and erect tanks and pumps. And we have said to all these people, all our petitioners who have signed up, everybody who is suffering under this whole disaster may sign up until two months before our civil court date, which is when we will be claiming damages on behalf of these residents in a mass law suit.”
