Waste removal: City needs to play its part too
“We also encourage the metro by-law enforcers to come down with a vengeance on anyone guilty of creating a health risk and an environmental hazard to the citizens of this town, even if that entity is the metro itself.”
Drummond Doig, vice chairperson of AfriForum Brakpan, writes by email:
With reference to the article, ‘City encourages residents to use their 240L wheelie bins’, published on the Herald’s website on March 7.
AfriForum Brakpan would like to remind the metro about its own responsibilities when it comes to the handling of domestic and commercial waste in Brakpan.
This article is particularly offensive in as such that the metro council seems to be implying that the onus for maintaining the integrity of the dumping of waste is the sole responsibility of the residents and business owners in Brakpan.
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Firstly, the metro needs to realise and also understand that the 240L wheelie bins are the property of the ratepayers of Brakpan.
The metro council has been entrusted by the ratepayers to manage the issuing of the bins, the replacement of damaged bins and the safekeeping of these bins when in public areas outside on the street while waiting for collection by the municipal waste trucks.
When that wheelie bin is placed outside the premises of the ratepayer, that wheelie bin and the contents thereof immediately become the metro’s responsibility.
The Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998 clearly defines the duties, roles and responsibilities in management in Local Government.
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The National Environmental Management Waste Act of 2008 as well as the Local Government Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2004 also explain and legislate how waste should be handled by metro municipal employees and clearly define the custodial responsibilities of handling waste generated in a municipal environment.
The EMPD is tasked with safeguarding the properties of the municipality (ratepayers). As such, it is their responsibility to act when these wheelie bins are being stolen, broken and misused whilst these bins are in the care of the metro.
If a bin is seen being pulled or pushed down the street, a crime is most likely being committed.
That bin is not intended to be used as a waste carrier tool by anyone outside the immediate boundaries of the legitimate ratepayer’s premises and the EMPD needs to act to safeguard these bins.
ALSO READ: City encourages residents to use their 240L wheelie bins
The waste contained within the bins that are put out on the pavement immediately becomes the responsibility of the metro the second it leaves the premises of a ratepayer.
If any item of that waste entrusted to the metro ends up in any other place other than at an approved waste disposal facility, the metro is breaking the law.
We are of the opinion that the supply chain of the waste bins to the metro needs to be closely monitored, as it seems that the suppliers of these bins have a profit-generating goldmine.
We also encourage the metro by-law enforcers to come down with a vengeance on anyone guilty of creating a health risk and an environmental hazard to the citizens of this town, even if that entity is the metro itself.
As shown by this past weekend’s town clean-up campaign, everyone does seem to have the desire for a clean, economically viable, crime-free town of Brakpan.
