DEAR Editor,-
At the time of preparing this statement, many areas along the coast have had their water supply restored. Of concern to the Democratic Alliance is that there are still areas that have now been without water for six days, with no resolution in sight.
With this in mind, the DA caucus leader at the Ugu District Municipality, Cllr Leonard Ngcobo, sent a message to the ANC mayor requesting that an emergency Exco meeting be convened as soon as possible to discuss the ongoing water crisis. No reply was received from the mayor, nor did Cllr George Henderson receive a reply to his request from the speaker.
Cllr Ngcobo then approached municipal manager DD Naidoo on Monday morning with the same request, only to be told that the mayor and other senior ANC political heads were away and not contactable. An immediate meeting could therefore not be convened. However, we were informed late on Monday night that an Exco meeting has been called for on Wednesday.
Of greater concern to the DA is that it would appear that false promises were made to workers regarding the so-called money ‘owed’ to them by Sanlam on the termination of the Ugu group life insurance policy on December 1. They were promised that their insurance fund contributions would be repaid to them together with their salaries on Thursday, December 15.
In the meantime however, Sanlam have indicated that all legal obligations and claims were met during the lifetime of the policy and that no further payments were due. It should be noted that in terms of this group life policy, cover was only provided for death, disability and funeral costs. It now remains to be seen what Ugu management are going to do to placate workers when their expected ‘premium refund’ money is not paid to them . The DA will call for Ugu to apply for an emergency court interdict to prevent further illegal strikes and sabotage from occurring.
While all this is happening, the ANC mayor, deputy mayor and speaker remain in hiding.
CLLR GEORGE HENDERSON
DA Ugu Chairman and Spokesman
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