There’s no end in sight to the on-going strike by workers of the Amatola Water Board in the Eastern Cape despite Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu’s intervention.
The strike is now entering its third week.
The workers are striking over unpaid bonuses and a shortage of staff. They also accuse the authorities of the board of not having their best interests at heart.
The strike has led to major water outages in several parts of the province.
South African Municipal Workers’ Union Provincial General-Secretary, Luzuko Yalezo, says meetings with stakeholders including the minister have not yielded any positive outcomes.
“On that one, we didn’t yield any outcome. Then during the weekend, we were having back-to-back meetings to try to resolve issues at Amatola Water. As we understand the situation is bad but the way forward and the program is that is we are meeting with our members to try to talk to them as the minister has written a letter that he is processing the issues.”
Water woes in NMB
Meanwhile, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Municipality officially warned residents to boil their water before using it.
It confirmed to the media last month that there are high levels of E.coli in the metro’s water supply.
The metro claims to be in control of the situation and will tell residents once it is satisfied with the quality of the water.
More details in the video below:
