Besides reading about the roll-out of wheelie bins in the City Times (June 24) for the first time, our ward was due to collect our bins the very next day, off Bright Street.
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When I arrived on Saturday, at 10.30am, the queue was very long and I decided to rather return later that afternoon, as I had to drop my domestic worker in town after lunch.
I arrived at 1.30pm just to find a longer queue, which was not moving as they had run out of bins!
I had no choice but to join the queue, as this was the only day allocated to Ward 28.
Although the article mentioned we could collect bins from the depot in Golden Drive, this was not possible for me as I work during the week.
We were informed that the truck – with the next load – had left the depot 20 minutes earlier and was on its way.
After 45 minutes people started getting irritated and enquired about what was going on.
The information we received was that Clr Mary Goby had made calls – even to the mayor – but no one answered their phones.
I felt sorry for the pensioners who had difficulty standing and I suggested they go and sit in their vehicles until the truck arrived.
As we were desperate, we stuck it out and waited, hoping the truck would still arrive.
At approximately 4.15pm, we were called together and told that we were welcome to wait until the cut-off time at 5pm, but that they were doubtful whether any more bins would be delivered.
We were advised to go to Hospital Road early the next morning, to try to collect from there.
Some of us from Ward 28 arrived as early as 8.30am and took ownership of our long-awaited bins.
This resulted in Ward 27 running out of bins prematurely.
We bumped into the same gentleman who helped us the previous day on Bright Street, who confirmed that no truck had arrived by 5pm.
My friend, who also resides in Farrarmere, told me she didn’t have to stand in any queue as she had already collected her bin on June 20, from an area near Pick n Pay Farrarmere.
When I asked how she knew so soon, she said that she received a message on WhatsApp from Ekurhuleni.
Helllooooo, not everybody has WatsApp!
Why didn’t the metro plan properly and place an article in the City Times weeks ahead so that residents could plan?
Not everybody has copies of their ID readily available and some also need time to assign somebody to collect on their behalf.
This is unacceptable, the metro should get their act together.
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