uThukela District Municipality has confirmed that staff has withdrawn from the on-going strike action that affected water supply since last week.
READ: uThukela confirms labour dispute may cause water cuts in some areas
Staff at the district municipality was embroiled in a labour dispute, which started last week, this resulted in hundreds of residents experiencing water interruptions.
Negotiations took place and then fell through when staff downed tools on Tuesday (July 28) and refused to return to work until all their demands were met.
READ: JUST IN: Expect more water disruptions as labour dispute intensifies
Today (July 30) the district’s communication manager Jabulani Mkhonza said that “majority of the municipality’s workforce has returned to work and has withdrawn from the on-going municipal workers’ strike”.
“As a result, service delivery has resumed as normal and water provision restored in residential and industrial areas. We have received no cases of intimidation as employees resumed their duties this morning. Our employees are working hard to ensure that they cover the backlogs, including sewer overflow that occurred due to the strike. The water supply is back to normal in most parts of the district,” he added.
He said that operations teams are checking possible bursts and other water and sewer infrastructure challenges.
“We assume that all is in order except for the burst pipes that were reported or identified but our technical team is attending to the matter. As uThukela District Municipality, we acknowledge that the strike action has caused a devastating impact in the everyday lives of our residents and consumers. We would like to assure them that the management did everything possible to ensure that the strike had minimal impact on service delivery and it’s resolved amicably. It is our hope that with the full complement of the workforce resuming their duties, service delivery would be improved and the municipality will remain committed to deliver services as mandated. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by the strike action,” stated Mr Mkhonza.
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