BL Premium reports that more than 15-million residents in Gauteng could be left without water when the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) goes on an indefinite strike at Rand Water from Wednesday.
The strike could also cripple crucial economic sectors such as manufacturing, mining and agriculture. Rand Water supplies Gauteng’s three metropolitan municipalities, local municipalities, mines and other industries, and parts of Mpumalanga, the North West and Free State with an average of 3.653-million litres of potable water daily. Samwu explained that the decision to strike was “a painful one as we know that taps will definitely run dry in all areas that are serviced by Rand Water". Samwu Gauteng deputy secretary Mamorena Madisha explained the reason for the strike as follows: "The management unilaterally decided that they are not going to pay our bonuses — which they have been paying for the past 70 years — because they said we didn’t reach the net income target. Yet we don’t even know what the targets were; that information is not forthcoming." She added that the union would not allow the employer to "bully workers by unilaterally changing employees’ conditions of service without any consultation whatsoever".
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
- See too, Union set to strike at Rand Water, at Engineering News
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page