Bernie Lightfoot writes by email:
We have an engineering company situated in Brakpan and also live here.
Can you please follow up on the non-collection of refuse in the town.
Our normal refuse collection day (Brakpan East area) is Tuesday morning, which became the afternoons or evening, and now for two weeks it has not been collected at all. Same for our business, located in Railway Street — normal day was Thursday mornings — same story, blah, blah, blah.
The bins are put outside in the mornings and back inside at night, no collection, like all other residents and business owners.
The heat and rain combined are breeding bacteria and disease faster than lightning, and maggots are all over the bins!
I, like many others, have phoned the refuse department and were told that the workers are now only working from 7am till 3.30pm.
No overtime is allowed.
Now nothing gets done at all!
The lady gave me the manager’s number, but I have not been able to get hold of him yet.
I am sure this is a go slow/strike because they were milking the overtime and have been discovered.
The council are covering and pretending nothing’s wrong and that collections are done.
Previously, the workers complained about picking up garbage bags with rotten or broken articles and it was causing them backache.
So they introduced the bins – much cleaner I have to say – if removed!
However, this is a very slow system, where the workers (only two per truck) walk at a snail’s pace dragging the bin to the lift, if it works.
Or they loan Benoni’s trucks.
I don’t understand how they managed before, but cannot lately.
Previously, with the bag system, they had five or more workers per truck picking up bags and putting them at a collection point, which was much faster (and employed more workers).
I would like to know, as a matter of interest, what happened to those other employees?
Are they being paid for doing nothing?
Also, these bins were “forced” onto us, but other towns do not use this system, i.e. parts of Benoni, Bonaero Park, Kempton and Springs.
Editor’s note: Comment was requested from the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, but none had been received at the time of publishing.
Also read: DA: New refuse removal system is a “monumental disaster”
Refuse collector has some nerve
Poor service delivery sets us back
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