Ugu District Municipality strike ends

A nine-day long illegal strike by employees of the Ugu District Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal south coast that left large parts of the southern parts of the province without water has ended.

This after acting Co-operative Governance MEC Weziwe Thusi intervened following the instruction of premier Willies Mchunu.

The municipality was forced to deploy armed guards to try and prevent further sabotage to water infrastructure.

“I must say we have sorted things out with the workers. From last night some of them were back at work and even this morning some of them are getting back to work. We are making sure that the water system is in place and also that tankers also go out so that people get water. We really apologise to the public.”

Thusi says the provincial government is looking into workers’ demands that they be refunded for a group life scheme that was suspended a few years ago.

“Their grievances were all about a Sanlam insurance policy they took and they believe that they were supposed to get their money back. So we are sorting it out with them. This was the main reason they had.”