The municipal strike is already busy sowing discord with southeastern suburbs without water for almost two days already.

The municipality cannot pinpoint the cause of the dry taps.

Councillor Morgan Bruiners said he was only told that the problem ‘might be a major pipe burst’.

The municipality is between a rock and hard place to maintain uninterrupted services due to the strike.

The authority will have to utilise external service providers if municipal employees continue to down tools.

The strike was sparked by a notice to suspend 14 municipal solid waste drivers who refuse to use the vehicles available to them.

Refuse removal services have been limited to working hours up to 18:30 daily.

Employees were also notified that overtime payments would be capped at two hours per day.

Apart from dry taps, rubbish has not been collected in Hlalamnandi for over three weeks.

The unprotected strike was announced on Monday at around noon.

Since then, working municipal employees have been ordered to down tools by striking colleagues.

The intimidation resulted in municipal services being suspended on Wednesday.

Buildings under lockdown by striking employees include the municipal magasyn stores, town planning services in SADC Street, and the civic centre.

The strike also resulted in Tuesday’s special council sitting being cancelled.

Negotiations with striking employees remain ongoing.