I am a resident from Wattle Street, Northmead Extension Four.
Send your letters to bctletters@caxton.co.za.
On May 20, at 2.30pm, the refuse removal truck was in our area.
Three of the workers were lingering in our street, while the truck was already in the next street collecting refuse with the other workers.
Two of the workers stayed behind, collecting food from one of the home owners.
The other worker was in the park at the corner of Wattle and Dahlia streets.
As I watched this worker, he removed a peach tree that we (the home owners of Wattle Street) had planted ourselves.
As I rushed over to this worker, the other two workers shouted at him and, upon seeing me, he threw down the tree and started to rush away.
I chased after him and, upon catching up to him, he threw his hands up in the air and said: “Sorry ma’am. Sorry”.
I reacted by saying: “Sorry is not going to fix the problem!”
He proceeded to walk away from me.
On requesting his name, he refused to give his details to me.
I asked the other two workers (who warned him that I saw him) about his details and their reply was that they “did not know him”, all the time talking about this incident in their own language.
I went all the way to the truck looking for the supervisor.
After battling to stop the truck (the workers were not willing to help me), I requested that the supervisor speak to me.
He said that he would follow up on the matter.
Upon asking when, he reported the matter on the radio to a woman (with a grin on his face).
He asked me to point to the worker in question, which I could not do, as he had refused to follow me to the truck and vanished!
I could tell him that he had an orange T-shirt on underneath his overall jacket.
This is not a laughing matter to me!
We try to improve the state of this park out of our own pockets/time and effort.
The parks department has already cut down three avocado trees, a lemon tree and a fig tree – after I showed them twice where the trees were and marked them with wooden poles.
Now this worker tries to steal a peach tree!
Editor’s note:
Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) spokesperson Themba Gadebe replies:
“The EMM will investigate the said allegations as the actions from the municipal employees are unacceptable.
“The necessary disciplinary action will be taken against the employee(s) who transgress the council’s disciplinary code of conduct.”
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