Harding community brings town to a standstill
All shops are closed as the community protests over water.
Harding community has brought the town to a standstill, protesting over service delivery issues.
At the top of their list, is the ongoing water crisis, with many left with dry taps following labour issues between Ugu District Municipality and workers belonging to the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu).
ALSO READ:No water – Ugu fires 42
A recent protest led to the dismissal of 42 Ugu employees, forcing the community to rely on water tankers.
Protesters said they were tired of empty promises from Ugu.
“We don’t have water, our businesses are being affected, our livelihoods are affected, what more must we do to get a solution,” one angry protester asked.
Lungile Mbotho said they have had enough of empty promises from Ugu and that the only language it understood was protest action.
“We are voting citizen and we have rights. Water is a basic human need but the people responsible for supplying it to us are failing”.
Ugu spokesman France Zama said the municipality was aware of the protest and would “at a later stage communicate interventions done by the municipality to aid the situation”.
“We are expecting our leadership meet with the community, however we are still assessing the situation,” he added.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman Captain Nqobile Gwala said this morning a group of people had gathered in Murchison Street , blocking the road and burning tyres in a service delivery protest.
” They went to the municipal offices at about 7am where they broke the gate and burnt tyres. Public Order Police are standing off to monitor the situation. The shops in town have been closed.”
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