Mothutlung- The Congress of South African Trade Unions has resolved to take up a campaign on water after its debate on the challenges that workers and members of the communities are facing on a daily basis.

COSATU has learned with disappointment that some councillors, senior politicians and their officials at the municipality level are implicated in corrupt activities in the water tank scandal.

COSATU said they will take up the matter with the provincial government and the minister of water affairs to deal with the crisis and go deeper to the roots of the matter, but also calls for an investigation in all municipalities on the current crisis that is created by certain individuals helping their friends to collapse the municipalities of our province.

“There is an element of corruption and some of them are unable to provide service and we should campaign for some of them to be amalgamated” Cosatu North West provincial general secretary Solly Phetoe said.

“We have lost lives in our municipalities and we are still losing lives and poor communities are not making their responsibilities as parents for taking care of their children. We are losing jobs due to water as we now know that Mafikeng Supreme Chicken is retrenching workers due to water shortage. It must be the responsibility of the municipality to make sure that our members are not retrenched or they must employ them” he said.

Cosatu said it is the federation’s view that yes, there is water challenges but in some areas have people who have no interest in the poor communities.

Cosatu Solly Phetoe said they do not care about the challenges facing the communities. Phetoe said what they care about is if “I take one truck of water how much will get in my pocket”.

“Our communities are still struggling with water, so it is a crisis that needs a strong campaign and stop people from using the water crisis to get rich.
Our members are dying in the municipalities due to poor conditions of service and money is taken to a few people after making sure that they get the tender” said Cosatu.

Municipalities are not able to provide protective cloths to workers due to corruption that is taking place in almost all of our North West municipalities, says Phetoe.

Cosatu is still awaiting a feedback from the investigators on the matter of the killing of poor families in Mothutlung for water.

“We are just watching the space from far on this matter, hoping that it will not be like the killing of the late Moss Phakoe whose family is still awaiting the judgment since December 2013 till now” he said.

Cosatu said it is possible that the case may be put into the water, as the accused are ‘politically connected’ as they normally say to their friends and it reaches the late family.

Phetoe said this can happen as they see things taking place in Rustenburg, where one person is given bail more than three times that on the murder cases.

The water crisis is a national question that must be dealt with by both national and provincial government and the private sector.

Phetoe said they will be taking up issues that affect workers and communities who had challenges during and before the national elections.

“Our campaign will take us to the streets if we find that the crisis is caused by corrupt activities that we are seeing happening in the municipalities” he said.

Cosatu promised to take action against employers who retrench workers for shortages of water. They will take up issues of service delivery jointly with SANCO to the streets.

Phetoe call all employers, in particular Supreme Chicken in Mafikeng, to reinstate all their members who are retrenched because of water shortages.

The provincial secretary will be visiting the company on Wednesday 21st May 2014 to meet with workers who are retrenched including those who are still employed. The company has retrenched almost 450 workers and the remaining are 550 on one shift.

“The municipality of Mafikeng must take responsibility for this retrenchment and unemployment crisis that is created by poor planning” concludes Phetoe.-TDN
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