According to Ms Wait, the particular shop steward, who cannot be named until she’s been formally charged and appeared in court, responded with vulgarities over account enquiries forwarded to Ms Wait from the public, in which the public said they received no feedback or help.

The public further allege that the shop steward is often snide with them, resulting in them escalating complaints and queries to their respective ward councillors.

According to Ms Wait, the shop steward responded by swearing at her “in words I don’t care to repeat”, before dropping the call with a spine-chilling threat.

“She said, I just want to tell you that after we burn the municipality, your house will be first,” Ms Wait says.

Since lodging a police complaint, Ms Wait says her concerns over her safety have drawn little interest from the police, who have been publicly ridiculed for their handling of the recent strikes that have become increasingly violent.

SAPS members have even been turned on by strikers, with police vehicle tyres being slashed and members pelted with stones after the municipal shooting a fortnight ago.

Meanwhile, local attorney Andre Brandmuller kicked off the week with an urgent application to the High Court for an interdict against the strikers, the municipality, provincial government, and councillors, further seeking the Middelburg SAPS as a respondent to the interdict, to do their work and restore order where illegal gatherings by employees take place, and that the public, colleagues and councillors are protected from attacks. Like last Saturday, when Mica gathered scores of residents to clean up the CBD.

Thousands of rands worth of damage was caused to one of Mica’s trucks availed to transport loads of trash to dumpsites and transfer stations.

Ms Wait’s colleagues, Hennie Niemann and Palesa Mobango, have also seen an uptick in threats on social media, being labelled enemies of the employees, despite the DA having blocked the deployment of Minah Maredi to Middelburg as interim municipal manager by the provincial ANC.

Mr Niemann sustained more than R13 000 damages to his vehicle in a recent attack by employees.

Ms Wait says she’s always been in service of the community, unlike the entitled shop steward who is well known for being abrasive and insulting.

“She flatly said she will not assist DA logged complaints, which is a dereliction of duty as a public servant.”

Mr Brandmuller called for a ceasefire on all fronts, especially from municipal employees.