DSW to address current collection issues

OVER the past several months frustrated community members have complained about the poor services being rendered by the DSW Collingwood depot. Issues such as uncollected refuse bags, illegal dumping and littering have become the norm even before the country went in to lockdown.

According to ward 33 councillor, Mmabatho Tembe, in July, Democratic Alliance (DA) ward and PR councillors within the Collingwood district requested a meeting with senior management to discuss and address the ongoing issues within the district. A petition with more than 1 000 signatures was also circulated to provide residents with an opportunity to pressure the City to act.

On Tuesday, 11 August a meeting took place between councillors, the Deputy Head of DSW Operations, the District Senior Manager and all 10 Area Cleansing Officers (ACO). Tembe said the purpose of the meeting was to identify all the current challenges within the department and district, propose solutions and ensure that services are improved on the ground.

“As public representatives, we highlighted five key issues identified by our community members. They are work stoppages, consistent breakdown of vehicles, poor communication from within the department, illegal dumping and consolidating refuse bags upon collection. From the onset we made it clear that these issues need to be addressed but that we would do everything within our power as public representatives to assist the department in addressing their internal challenges and be their partner throughout the process instead of being an obstacle,” said Tembe.

ALSO READ: Continuous DSW strikes frustrate Durban councillors

She said the Department indicated that the majority of the challenges that they are currently experiencing is as a result of their reliance on other municipal departments in awarding and purchasing key maintenance contracts and replacing their old fleet with new vehicles. The department is also currently streamlining their organogram to ensure that they drastically improve on their core mandate. This has come with multiple challenges and is the root cause of recent work stoppages.

“With resources remaining the same within the department they are required to service more densified suburban areas and additional communities within the new city boundaries. Informal traders, vagrants and the increasing number of informal settlements have put a further strain on their budget. The Supply Chain Management Department is yet to finalise contracts for the cleaning of informal settlements and key fleet maintenance contracts. Delays in the purchasing of new refuse trucks are stalled within the City Fleet Department even though council approved millions of rands in the last financial year to purchase multiple refuse trucks to replace the ageing fleet,” said Tembe.

She said DA councillors stated that even though most of these challenges are out of their control the Department had to do more to improve the services on the ground. They proposed several interventions to ensure that each of these issues is addressed swiftly so that DSW officials had all the tools at their disposal to improve their services.

Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting

Dear reader,

As your local news provider, we have the duty of keeping you factually informed on Covid-19 developments. As you may have noticed, mis- and disinformation (also known as “fake news”) is circulating online. Caxton Local Media is determined to filter through the masses of information doing the rounds and to separate truth from untruth in order to keep you adequately informed. Local newsrooms follow a strict pre-publication fact-checking protocol. A national task team has been established to assist in bringing you credible news reports on Covid-19.

Readers with any comments or queries may contact National Group Editor Irma Green (irma@caxton.co.za) or Legal Adviser Helene Eloff (helene@caxton.co.za).

At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.

Do you want to receive news alerts via Telegram? Send us a message (not an sms) with your name and surname to 060 532 5535.

You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Berea Mail Telegram number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts

Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple