{"id":78430,"date":"2018-02-17T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T07:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/?p=78430"},"modified":"2018-02-21T10:31:46","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T08:31:46","slug":"gupta-zuma-hendrina-without-water-optimum-fails-pay-workers-contractors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/news-headlines\/2018\/02\/17\/gupta-zuma-hendrina-without-water-optimum-fails-pay-workers-contractors\/","title":{"rendered":"GUPTA &#8211; ZUMA: Hendrina without water after Optimum fails to pay workers, contractors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gupta owned Optimum Mine has not paid its Pullenshope water purification plant workers, resulting in a total water shutdown in Hendrina the past four days.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Tshwete Municipality&#8217;s Mayor Mike Masina told\u00a0<strong><i>www.mobserver.co.za<\/i><\/strong>\u00a0that crisis meeetings will be held today to address the situation.<\/p>\n<p>He says that he&#8217;s been desperately trying to contact Optimum Mine COO Mr George van der Merwe but that his calls and messages remain unanswered.<\/p>\n<p>Jo-Jo tanks have been carted into Hendrina and Kwazamakuhle though Hendrina&#8217;s main reservoir is empty due to the shutdown.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_78431\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-78431\" style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-78431\" src=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2018\/02\/gupta2-Copy-520x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"520\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/92\/2018\/02\/gupta2-Copy-520x400.jpg 520w, https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/92\/2018\/02\/gupta2-Copy-300x231.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-78431\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The town has been left without water following problems at the Optimum water plant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The town has experienced a number of shutdowns since December.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile a R100 000 reward has been offered for the successful arrest of Ajay Gupta following raids on the Gupta&#8217;s Saxonworld compound on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Optimum is owned jointly by the Guptas and former Presidents Jacob Zuma&#8217;s son Duduzane who also faces arrest in relation to the Freestate dairy farm scandal.<\/p>\n<p>Middelburg businesses have also confirmed that they haven&#8217;t received any payment for services from both Optimum and Koornfontein Mines, which is also owned by the Guptas.<\/p>\n<p>Water trucks will have multiple daily runs into Hendrina and Kwazamakuhle until the matter is resolved.<\/p>\n<p>Power Construction and Sanral committed to supplying water to Hendrina&#8217;s old age home with more than 80 residents, from Bethal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Koornfontein, Klipbank, Sandile mines also without water, production halted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5031,"featured_media":78433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Gerhard Rheeder","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[10489,10488,10486,1021,10491,10010,21966,3631,7592,10490,2972,9276,1012,10444,10487],"class_list":["post-78430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","tag-ajay-gupta","tag-duduzane","tag-gupta","tag-hendrina","tag-hendrina-without-water","tag-local-news","tag-middelburg","tag-mike-masina","tag-optimum","tag-reward-for-ajay","tag-steve-tshwete","tag-trusted-news-source","tag-water","tag-water-shortage","tag-zuma"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"tag_labels":["ajay gupta","duduzane","gupta","Hendrina","hendrina without water","local news","middelburg","Mike Masina","optimum","reward for ajay","Steve Tshwete","trusted news source","water","water shortage","zuma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}