No pay, but we'll fix the water

TEAMWORK: RESIDENTS, COUNCIL VOLUNTEERS DO THE JOB

- Marizka Coetzer

A handful of municipal workers volunteered their time over the weekend to install sponsored parts to restore water to thousands of residents in Equestria because the City of Ekurhuleni did not have spare parts in stock.

It was a challenging weekend for residents in the suburb east of Pretoria, who first had to endure power outages following a storm.

This was followed by a prolonged water outage, affecting nearly 15,000 residents, due to parts that were out of stock and a cap on city workers' overtime pay.

Equestria ward 85 councillor Jacqui Uys had her hands full to liaise between the community, the city and stakeholders.

It all started on Friday afternoon when the head of water allegedly said the city did not have the needed spares to restore a main water pipe on Furrow Road.

However, the community successfully sourced all the material needed, purchased the spares with the help of a sponsor at The Grove Mall and got help from a group of municipal workers who worked without overtime pay to help put water back in the taps.