Editor – I refer to your front-page article ‘Taps run dry as uThukela workers go on strike’ that was published in the June 29 edition of the Ladysmith Gazette.
Residing in the Aloe Park area, there have been many times when we have woken up in the morning to dry taps.
It can be rather frustrating and an inconvenience, as one has to scramble in order to get ready for work, not forgetting the unhygienic conditions we have to face when there is no water!
Our toilets are in a mess, and one has to look at alternate means to bath and collect water in containers.
In the past year, articles pertaining to uThukela failing to supply water to residents have been published endlessly in your newspaper and on your website.
Be it strike actions or electrical issues at the plant, rate-paying residents are often deprived of an essential need. A million questions have to be asked: Do we have qualified people working at this municipality?
Management should have known that by not paying the workers what is due to them, protest action would be on the cards. Why must it culminate in the burning of tyres, damage to property and faeces being thrown at buildings before their grievances are heard?
And why should innocent ratepayers be punished not having water because of municipal officials’ actions? Truly speaking, I am pretty sure management was warned prior to the strike that should their wage dispute not be resolved, the workers would ‘down tools’.
Such actions did not happen overnight!
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