THE residents of Hoffman Place informal settlement took to the streets last week dumping trash across Alpine Road in an effort to get DSW to pick up their rubbish.
Sibusiso Mngonyama, a resident of Hoffman Place told Berea Mail, “The DSW truck normally comes up to the top of the road and takes out their refuse but hadn't come right to the top for the past few weeks.
“One of the guys saw them on Thursday and told the truck driver we have a lot of dirt that needs to be fetched but they were ignored. So the people were very angry and left the dirt along Alpine Road.”
Mngonyama said the residents of the informal settlement felt they were not important enough for DSW to come all the way and collect their rubbish. “We are not happy because nobody from DSW informed us why they were not coming up to collect our dirt. They provide us with the bags so they should pick [the bags] up,” he added.
According to a resident of Hoffman Place who did not want to be named, DSW had fetched their rubbish but not picked up the rubbish from the informal settlement for three weeks. “Their rubbish is all in packets like our domestic waste so they had no other option but to dump the dirt and block the road to get DSW's attention. It's the municipality's fault because they have allowed them to stay here, given them water and toilets so can't not pick up their rubbish, especially after giving them the DSW bags!” said the resident.