Image: Facebook Threats of legal action by the Ugu municipality on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast in response to a social media post on “dirty tap water” backfired when residents produced photographs of muddy tap water on Thursday.
The municipality expressed "concern and dissatisfaction" after a photograph of muddy water coming out of a bathroom tap went viral on social media on Wednesday.
It maintained that while the district continued to experience water woes‚ it was "certain that no area during this period has been provided with such water".
On Ugu Complaints‚ a Facebook page where disgruntled residents share their frustrations‚ residents posted pictures of muddy water coming out of their taps.
One resident from Oslo Beach said her toilet bowls were stained and she had to buy bottled water to brush her teeth and cook.
Meanwhile at least 6‚000 people have submitted affidavits and signed a petition to criminally charge and sue the municipality and its staff for alleged sabotage and vandalism of water services and infrastructure last year.
The municipality said it had received death threats against repairmen sent to fix the damage.
The sabotage was blamed on water and sanitation workers in the municipality who had been on an unprotected strike.
The KwaZulu-Natal government accused workers of “deliberately damaging the infrastructure” and at the time Weziwe Thusi‚ the acting MEC for co-operative governance‚ said the sabotage was “wrong and illegal” and must stop.
She said that the water supply would return “to normal with immediate effect” and that an agreement had been reached with the strikers.