Durban — It was still unclear on Friday whether the illegal strike that halted service delivery in the eThekwini Municipality was over.
The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) admitted last week that it had lost control of its members. It said workers had, without its authorisation, carried out a massive protest on February 27 after hearing that the City was not ready to implement salary adjustments in line with other metros.
eThekwini Ratepayers Association president Ish Prahladh said on Friday that as far as he had observed, refuse collection had not returned to normality in most parts of the city.
When asked if, according to his observation, the strike was over, Prahladh said: “No, it is not.”
“The bins are being picked up in certain places, with metro police behind the bin trucks,” he said.
He said some residents had to go out to clear a load of rubbish that had been washed on to the streets by heavy rain.
“I am waiting today (yesterday) as it is the collection day, and I drove around to see where I could find the bin trucks, but I cannot see any,” said Prahladh.
This was contrary to mayor Mxolisi Kaunda’s assertion that the strike was over when he delivered the draft budget report on Tuesday.
“As of this morning (Tuesday), the collection of refuse has been fully restored and residents are reminded to take out their refuse bags on the morning of their scheduled collection days.
“Massive clean-up operations and the clearing of waste collection backlog is ongoing,” said Kaunda.
“We are confident that by the end of this week, we will begin to see improvement both in the CBD and residential areas,” said Kaunda.
When contacted on Friday morning to check if all Samwu members were back and doing their work, Samwu regional secretary Xolani Dube said he could not talk because he was in a meeting.
Independent on Saturday