EFF eThekwini Region led by the party’s KZN chairperson, Mongezi Twala, answered the call of Overport residents who have been struggling with weeks of uncollected refuse due to the eThekwini municipal workers’ strike.
In a briefing on Wednesday, Durban mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said due to the illegal industrial action, the city was facing a massive service delivery backlog.
Abdool Valodia, chairperson of the Overport Ratepayers Association, told “The Mercury” that he noticed that the EFF were interacting with residents in the CBD on Tuesday and he decided to approach the party for assistance with service delivery in the area.
“What you see here (refuse) has been sitting here for weeks already, almost a month. People are not getting their refuse picked up and rodents are running (around). It’s a very unhealthy situation,” he said.
Valodia thanked the EFF for helping. “That’s what we need to see – political parties on the ground.”
Regional chairperson for the EFF in eThekwini, Themba Mvubu, said the prolonged strike had caused the city to collapse and the EFF had come to assist the residents of ward 31 with their limited resources to collect piles of refuse.
Mvubu said they communicated with their structures in ward 31 and asked volunteers to come and assist with the clean-up.
“We have answered the call but sometimes our limited resources may limit our ability to be everywhere,” he said, adding that other logistical issues such as hiring the truck and feeding the volunteers must be taken into account.
He said they also had to procure security due to allegations that striking municipal workers were trying to prevent people from cleaning.
Mvubu added that the EFF had a meeting with the mayor on Tuesday, calling on him to “find an amicable solution to deal with these issues because it is the communities that are suffering”.
Kaunda said since the strike began on February 27, the municipality had not been able to fulfil its mandate to provide some of the most basic services to the residents.
“We are confident that today (Wednesday) the number (of striking workers who returned to work) has increased which gives us hope that the service delivery challenges we have been facing will now be resolved,” he said.
The EFF volunteers collected the refuse in the area while also campaigning for Palestine’s freedom in the ongoing war with Israel.
The Mercury