A food production company based in Isando, Ekurhuleni, is counting the costs after it lost more than R18m due to the recent disruption caused by Rand Water maintenance.
Isando Foods, which produces cooking oils Sunfoil and D'lite, is accusing the City of Ekurhuleni of not planning and communicating clearly the duration of the water disruption, which it says badly affected its operations.
Isando Foods’ recent experience is similar to that of dairy giant Clover in Lichtenburg, North West. Clover shut its operations and fled for KwaZulu-Natal in 2021 because of “ongoing poor service delivery” from the local Ditsobotla Municipality.
The business sector recently welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa's sentiments that there is a need to increase investment in infrastructure, ramp up maintenance and improve service delivery at local government level. He said this would be driven via the second phase of Operation Vulindlela — a government initiative located in the Presidency and Treasury to drive reform and economic growth, which would also help municipalities to perform better in rendering service delivery.
Michael Dougall, general manager of Isando Foods, said the communication from the council was that water supply would be disrupted on July 29 and restored by 9pm on July 30.
“Water never came back at 9pm and the whole of that week, right through to last week Friday afternoon which was the first time we saw water again.
“We were down from July 29 until August 3. There was no production. We crush sunflower seeds, pack and bottle them and distribute to some of the biggest supermarkets in the country. We also produce soya and distribute it across the country.
“All production came to a standstill. There are other companies in the area that suffered the same. Just on the oil alone, we lost R18m.
“We wish the municipality could plan better. When we wanted answers about the water disruption, we could not get facts from them. If the municipality commits that water will come back at a certain given time, they should stick to that time,” Dougall said.
Isando Foods also produces animal feeds through the by-products which remain after the suction of oil from the seeds. It packs 600 tons of oil a day. When the water supply was disrupted, its 400 workers sat at home doing nothing.
According to an official reminder issued by the City of Ekurhuleni, the final phase of Rand Water’s maintenance project commenced on July 29, and was scheduled until 9pm on Tuesday, July 30.
Rand Water had warned the public about its scheduled maintenance across Gauteng, which also affected the City of Johannesburg.
But Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said the city did everything it could to communicate timeously and also provide updates on what was to happen during the Rand Water maintenance.
“All the municipalities that were affected formed a joint communications task team which included Rand Water. We started issuing joint statements and press conferences were held. All the information was shared to the public including the dates.
“A week before the area is affected and on the eve of the maintenance we issued a reminder.
“We made it clear that people must save water because as much as the notice said 72 hours, this is the time that Rand Water needed to fix the infrastructure. It does not mean that this would be the time it takes to bring back water supply.
“We mentioned to the public that to recover the system we would need three to 15 days. The areas that are high lying would be badly affected as it takes for a lot of pressure to pump water to those areas,” Dlamini said.
He added that the company should keep in touch with the municipality next time and call the communications team directly when seeking a clear message about water supply or any other service.
