Community members from at least four different sections in Tembisa are threatening a massive shutdown strike.
This is after the communities of Madelakufa, Emfihlweni, Lidinga, Liliba, Emoyeni, Mangweni and Jiyane have been without clean running water for the past three weeks.
One of the community leaders representing these areas, Albert Mngomezulu, told this paper that they have been without clean water for over three weeks and they accuse the City of Ekurhuleni for not communicating with them and addressing their water crisis.
“We are hearing different stories from people but nothing solid from the City. Some people are saying the City has imposed water restrictions on a number of sections, but our question is how did the City arrive at this decision without talking to us first? And what criteria did the City use to when deciding on sections to be restricted, because no one addressed us. We are aware that other sections such as Lekaneng to Birchleigh have access to clean water every day,” said Mngomezulu.
He added that they feel disrespected by the City for failing to communicate with them and offer temporary solutions such as water tankers.
“We don’t want to do this. As a matter of fact, we do not enjoy barricading roads and burning tyres whenever we are dissatisfied about service delivery, but we don’t have a choice. No one is telling us anything and maybe they will come to us if we take to the streets and block all major roads leading to Tembisa,” he added.
This newspaper has been inundated with calls from the community complaining about the lack of water in their respective sections.
Responding to the community outcry, The Tembisan took to the streets and were met with scores of people queuing for water in the streets.
Some didn’t want to talk or be photographed by the paper while many others just opened up and vented their frustrations.
“This is not fair because we depend on water for house chores and other things such as flushing and bathing, but now, the taps are dry and we are in the dark. It feels like we are back in the apartheid days where we had no access to services such as clean running water,” said Emellinah Nkuna, a resident at Lidinga section.
At the time of going to press the City had not yet responded to written questions as to why water services were stopped in some parts of the township and how long it will take for it to solve this problem.
