Ugu Municipality residents consider rent boycott over ongoing water crisis

Residents of Ugu Municipality, particularly those residing along Hibiscus Road in Margate, are contemplating a rent boycott due to the entity’s ongoing failure to provide a sustainable supply of water.

Many families have been left in distress, grappling with severe drought conditions and they have been frustrated by by lack of communication from local officials.

Local resident Susan Kohler expressed her disappointment at how she and her neighbours were without a reliable supply of water for nearly a month.

“We hardly have decent showers,” she lamented. There is barely a trickle of water at 5:30 am. Hardly enough to shower.

"I have been posting several times on the UGU WhatsApp so they cannot claim they do not know. Can we please be told what the problem is? We need transparency.”

Another resident, Celeste Lategan, shared her mounting frustration over the lack of response from the municipality, describing the situation as “beyond ridiculous.”

Lategan has been voicing concerns since December when families in the area were left without water for the entirety of the month, claiming the community was owed answers.

“When will it be sorted, if it will ever be sorted?

"I have been told for ages that the matter is being investigated. Can it really take this long to figure out what is going on?”

For Lategan, the absence of water has become a regular occurrence that disrupts her daily life.

“You can be guaranteed that the water will be gone over the weekend. It is a bucket bath for us now! I am seriously considering withholding payment until we get answers. I will keep contacting our ward councillor and demanding transparency.”

In response to the ongoing crisis, ward councillor George Henderson shared a message from Malibongwe (Luswazi), the Ugu area manager, regarding the water outages.

The message indicated that the situation had not previously been escalated to his attention. “I will personally deal with this issue and see to it that it gets resolved.

Hopefully, we will get some action now,” it read.

However, another resident Charles Kohler said Henderson had given an undertaking that the municipality had identified the problem regarding water supply to Hibiscus Road and that the technician was working on it and that if the problem was not resolved within 8 hours, residents would receive further news from the municipality.

“It’s now 21.50 and still no water! Why is UGU not being transparent? Why are we not being told exactly what the problem is,” Kohler asked.

Despite the outcry from residents, the Ugu Municipality failed to respond to the publication’s questions sent last week.

DAILY NEWS