When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. That's the view of several Pretoria residents who have used the devastating three-month municipal strike as a job opportunity.
Among them is Kgothatso Molewa, 23, who “assists” the community by offering water from a municipal fire hydrant outside his mother’s house for a “gratuity” of R20.
The strike has contributed to disrupted water supply in several areas.
Molewa sits outside his home every day with a green bucket under the fire hydrant, which is linked to a separate pipeline not affected by water cuts.
His day starts at 5am when scores of people queue outside his house. Molewa uses a wheel spanner to open the fire hydrant and fill each bucket.
I wouldn’t say this is a business. I would say I am helping people and they pay me in gratitude
— Kgothatso Molewa, sells water from fire hydrant
“That is rush hour for me. Between 5am and 7am there are a lot of people coming to get water to bathe for work. Then it quietens down and starts again from 5pm to 9pm for those who have returned from work.”
He charges R2 for a glass of water which he serves in a plastic bottle cut in half. He charged a Sunday Times reporter R1 for a sip of water from the hydrant. A quick hand wash is free.
Molewa said he makes more than R300 a day, which he uses to help his unemployed mother and to buy food for the house.
“I wouldn’t say this is a business. I would say I am helping people and they pay me in gratitude. It gets dirty and muddy by the end of the day but I make sure to clean up. I even gave some money to my mother so she can get her hair braided on Thursday.”
He said schools use the water to flush toilets and to prepare food for pupils.
“You might say this is not my water and that it’s municipal water, but when I’m not here and people need water, they come knocking at my door because there is no order. I am willing to help them at any hour of the night. But once the water problem is solved and water is restored, I’ll go back to my old hustle, which was to work as a mechanic,” he said.
The strike over wage increases has left many residents without water, electricity or waste collection as there has been limited staff to repair damaged water pipes and electricity sub-stations and other infrastructure. Non-striking staff have been intimidated and harassed into staying away.
While the municipality has deployed water tankers, many residents complain the water is dirty and undrinkable.
Another Mabopane resident, Lebogang Mahlangu, roped in a pensioner with a van and two unemployed boys when they had no water for several days last month.
With the two boys in the back shouting “metsi! metsi!” (water), residents and spaza shop owners would come out with their buckets and negotiate a price.
“I charged pensioners about R70 per bucket and shop owners R90. We then went to Kgabalatsane where there is a borehole and pumped out water for them. I also sold water from sewer pipes for R50 a bucket but that was strictly for flushing toilets.”
He said he made about R300 a day after paying the pensioner, the two boys and the people managing the borehole, who charged R2 a bucket.
“But now that the water has returned in Block C, the hunger has also returned,” he told the Sunday Times.
In Kgabalatsane, a rural area outside Ga-Rankuwa, Lethabo Ndlovu sells bottled alkaline water under a gazebo. He charges R60 for five litres.
“Most of the people who buy here understand the health benefits of this type of water and people come in their cars to buy water.”
Small business owner Keamogetswe Ditsile, 29, pays a driver with a van to collect household rubbish bins and take them to the dump.
Before the municipal strike, her company, Larona Leano, collected waste bins and washed them for residents for a monthly fee of between R100 and R120 per bin. This would bring in about R3,000 a month.
But since waste collection slowed and water became unavailable her profits have dropped by half. From cleaning 28 to 30 bins a week, she now only has between 12 and 15 to work with, reducing her profit to around R1,500.
“Because I didn’t want to lose my customers, I pay someone with a van to collect waste dustbins from my customers, which we empty out at the dumping site. I don't charge my customers extra because I don’t want to lose them by making them pay more.”
The strike has left its mark on the city. The charred remains of burnt tyres and debris are strewn around intersections in Mabopane after protests by residents angry about the lack of service delivery.
The unprotected strike started in July after the Tshwane municipality refused to implement wage increases despite an agreement with the South African Local Government Bargaining Council. The city says it cannot afford the increases, which would cost R600m, due to low revenue collection.
The strike continues despite a court interdict, and acts of vandalism, arson and intimidation have been reported, leading to a halt in the Tshwane bus service.
Dumping sites such as the Lyttelton Mini Garden Dumping Site are overflowing with garden waste, which spills onto the road. One lane is completely blocked.
While the water shortage was initially caused by the municipal workers’ strike, Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the current cause was the low levels in reservoirs.
“The city’s technicians are investigating the reason why the reservoir levels are not picking up.
“The city has started implementing the catch-up plan. However, it constantly gets disrupted by the unprotected strike, coupled with elements of criminality, which include threats as well as intimidation of contractors and workers.
“These ongoing destructions continue to impact negatively on general waste collection and disposal operations.”
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