Petitions drawn up over rubbish removal chaos

Although refuse was removed in some areas this week, others, like one side of Dolomite Street, have not seen a garbage truck in the past five weeks. The situation got so bad during the week that two petitions started circulating on social media. In both, residents asked for a refund for the services that were not delivered. The petitions were to be emailed to the officials working with such payments, the email addresses of whom were provided. Other residents proposed more drastic action like dumping the rubbish in the parking lot behind the municipality. In so doing, Merafong would be forced to remove it. A community meeting on the lack of service was also scheduled to take place in Khutsong on Wednesday afternoon. The municipality previously refused to answer the Herald’s questions about whether residents would get a discount for the refuse removal services that never happened. “The municipality is in the process of arranging for the excess rubbish to be removed. The removal of waste from residences and businesses is being addressed with the resources available to the municipality. Any changes in removal schedules will be communicated to the community as soon as they are implemented. “The illegal dumping of waste is an offence and the community is encouraged to report such incidents so they can be dealt with,” a municipal spokesperson said on Tuesday.