‘Helpers’ at rubbish dump now ask money
As if the other problems at the Fochville waste transfer station are not enough the scavengers at the site are now asking money from people who want to dump there.
According to the owner of a garden service in Fochville he was furious when he went to dump at the site on the afternoon of Friday 21 July.
“When I wanted to offload some garden refuse, they would not allow me unless I paid them R20. You have to do it otherwise they threaten you and will even damage your vehicle,” he complains. According to the businessman some others pay the “helpers” as much as R400 a month to stop these people harassing them. Many other residents have complained in the past that these people at the dump are uncontrollable and scare normal residents from going there. This leads to an increasing number of people dumping their rubbish on the way to the facility or even in open spaces in the town.
There are also allegations that some of the people at the dump deal in drugs. This seems possible because several thin young men of different cultural groups who clearly did not work at the transfer station nor go there to dump anything were walking to and from the facility when the Herald went there on Monday just before 15:00.
The Merafong City Local Municipality again refused to answer questions about the matter on Tuesday.
