Sabotage behind Msunduzi CBD water outages, says mayor Thebolla

The Msunduzi Municipality says there have been coordinated efforts to sabotage its water infrastructure.

The municipality called a media briefing on Monday to discuss the water outage experienced by the Pietermaritzburg High Court and the Deeds Office in the city's CBD in the past week.

It was reported last week that sabotage was suspected because only water to the two buildings was affected and not other areas of the city centre.

Msunduzi Municipality Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla said the sabotage is politically motivated.

"We had no water in the Deeds Office and in the High Court. If these two institutions are not working, it means service delivery in KwaZulu-Natal is at a standstill. The people who did this know that if you shut off the valves in these two areas, there will be no water in large parts of the city. We are concerned about the coordinated manner of the sabotage; for instance, our valves in the High Court were shut off, but the valves inside the court that are managed by the staff of the court were also shut off, so there is a coordinated effort in this sabotage."

He added that the municipality is working with law enforcement agencies to find the culprits.

"But there is no doubt in our minds that the sabotage is politically motivated, and the intention behind the sabotage is to incite anger among the people of Msunduzi towards the municipality. We all know that water is life; without water, there is a lot of frustration."

Thebolla said they understood that with the elections coming up, there is a risk of such happenings in a politically charged environment.

He stated that in the last election, they experienced the same with the sabotage of electricity infrastructure.

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