Excess rubbish still not removed
Although the Merafong City Local Municipality procured a new fleet of refuse removal trucks last week, the towns still look terrible because of the excess rubbish dumped while there was no service delivery.
Ratepayers and other residents across the area have been stranded due to the municipality not removing rubbish from houses for over a month. On Thursday, 14 September, it finally announced it had procured eight waste compactor trucks, which started working earlier in the day.
“The waste compactor trucks have been customised and fitted with specialised bin-lifters and riding-rails. They will be branded with the municipal logo and fraud hotline contact numbers in the coming weeks,” said the municipality’s acting marketing and communications manager, Ms Nomonde Mahube.
“We urgently want to attend to the many service delivery complaints we received through my office and the municipal call centre about non-collection of waste and uncontrolled illegal dumping and littering around our city,” added the mayor, Ms Nozuko Best.
She again warned against environmental pollution by dumping and urged employees to look after the new vehicles.
Despite the new vehicles, the municipality has not started removing the rubbish dumped when there was no service delivery. By Monday, heaps of garbage were still lying along public routes where there had never been dumping before, like next to Kaolin Street in Carletonville. In Khutsong, the excess rubbish also led to another environmental hazard as EPWP (Extension Public Works Programme) workers set alight heaps of garbage in Khutsong South, despite authorities warning that it could lead to widespread veld fires. On Tuesday, the Herald asked the municipality when it planned to remove the excess rubbish. We are working on addressing illegal dumping,” they answered.
