Residents and businesses in Pietermaritzburg continue to face severe disruptions to essential services as a strike by municipal workers in Msunduzi enters its 10th day, leaving parts of the city without electricity, water and refuse collection.
Workers affiliated with the South African Municipal Workers' Union (SAMWU) are demanding that the municipality implement an updated job grading system, a dispute that has brought several municipal operations to a standstill.
Ward 26 councillor and Democratic Alliance caucus leader, Ross Strachan, said some communities have been without electricity for up to five days, with ongoing outages affecting suburbs including Northdale, Wembley, Clarendon and Presbury.
Strachan said the strike has also disrupted water supply in certain areas and resulted in growing piles of uncollected refuse in the central business district. He warned that the economic impact is escalating, with businesses and factories reportedly shutting down because of the prolonged disruptions.
"We've got a severe problem. We have escalated to the provincial government, both the premier and the MEC, and we're hoping for further interventions from them," Strachan said.
He added that calls are mounting for the declaration of a local state of disaster to enable provincial authorities to deploy additional resources and assist in restoring services.
"We're also calling for a local state of disaster to possibly get some capacity in from the province, a task team or whatever. But the municipal leadership have completely collapsed," he said.
"There's no accountability, no responsibility, and no one is talking. So that is the deep, deep problem, and the symptoms of when government leadership collapses, this is the result that we're facing right now."
The municipality says it is continuing discussions with SAMWU in an effort to resolve the labour dispute and restore essential services across the city.
While condemning any unlawful conduct associated with the strike, Strachan said workers' grievances should not be ignored and urged both parties to find common ground.
"And they've just said, 'Well, we've had enough now, and we're going to show you, and we're going to teach you that we'll take to the streets,'" he said.
"So yes, I believe that in terms of the criminality of an unlawful strike, it must have court action and legal action. But there also needs to be a two-pronged approach in trying to come up with some sort of compromise with the unions, continue the engagements, and bring back stability."
He warned that unless meaningful negotiations take place soon, the standoff is likely to continue.
"But that is currently not happening, so it's clearly adding more fuel to the fire," Strachan said.