MENTION the word ‘water’ now and hackles rise instantly.
To cut a very, very long story short, many will remember this as the ‘worst festive season ever’.
They couldn’t bath, shower, wash dishes, clothes, they had to rely on water tankers (when available) and store bought supplies to drink.
It lasted days for some, weeks for others.
Some blame Ugu Municipal Manager DD Naidoo as the ‘Grinch who stole Christmas’.
One ranter on social media even suggested that in medieval days Mr Naidoo would have been ‘hanged, drawn and quartered’. Fair… not fair?
At the risk of being labled his ‘spin doctor’ once again, the truth is that he actually ‘saved’ the festive season for many others by taking a costly, drastic, ‘over a barrel’ decision which averted a ‘total’ catastrophe.
It was certainly unfair in the eyes of many that workers ‘scored’ R13-million that they were (allegedly) not entitled to, but if they didn’t get it a continued strike would have shut down services to the entire Ugu district which would have lasted months, never mind mostly the southern areas and inland for days or weeks.
Perhaps there are many other question Mr Naidoo, his management team and Ugu need to answer to, but the latter should not be one of them.
Ask yourself: What decision would you have taken under the circumstances?
But other answers are still needed:
* How was the dispute allowed to get to that stage in first place? Even Mr Naidoo admitted shoddy paper work could be a reason.
* Could the strike and sabotage have been predicted and averted? Maybe, maybe not. We’ll probably never know.
* Were sinister, political plots in play? Mmmmm.
* Would a disaster management plan (if there was one in place after the salt water fiasco) have worked? Without any staff at all? Doubtful.
* Did Ugu communications staff fall down on the job? Yes and no. Ward councillors and community individuals were certainly very proactive and often voiced their frustrations at the lack of information from Ugu. Maybe the Ugu communications staff were just overwhelmed?
Perhaps everyone should just have agreed to a joint message: “Heck, guys. It’s a crisis. Technical teams are out there working day and night to restore supplies. We take note, but it’s virtually impossible to respond to every individual. Time frames are difficult to predict and we don’t want to give you false hope. As soon as we know more, you will be first to know.”
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