NATIONAL NEWS - Just hours before the sixth national election was due to start, eThekwini Municpality declared that the dispute between the city, the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and Independent Municipal and Allied Union (Imatu), which brought service delivery to a halt for the past two weeks, has been resolved.

According to reports, employees will go back to work and all working equipment and tools of trade will be released, including vehicles which have been impounded.

The municipality confirmed that the parties had agreed that a disciplinary process would immediately ensue, and perpetrators brought to book.

City manager Sipho Nzuza said: “Discussions at the bargaining council commenced on Monday and are expected to be concluded in 30 days. We urge our employees to desist from violent strikes that cripple the operations of the city.

“Recently, we had to spend a lot [of] resources and money to clean up the mess that was left behind by our workers in the central business district,” said Nzuza.

Addressing the media in Durban on Friday, KZN Premier Willies Mchunu said the illegal municipal workers’ strike caused R3.5m in damage.

“The cost of the damage to date is over R3.5 million on the eThekwini municipal infrastructure. This excludes impact on the economy, which is still being quantified, and the cost of hiring privately owned water tankers where reservoirs and valves have been tampered with.”

Read more on the Caxton publication, The Citizen.