Waste services have been restored in parts of the city region following several weeks of interrupted services.
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This is according to the City of Ekurhuleni.
Despite this, the Bedfordview and Edenvale NEWS was informed on November 11 by Fourth Avenue resident Louis Erasmus that his refuse had not been collected for the third consecutive week.
Erasmus and other residents residing on the lower half of Fourth Avenue voiced their concerns about the lack of waste collection, calling for something to be done about the matter.
In light of this, the NEWS sent an in-depth inquiry after speaking to several residents and Ward 18 Clr Alderman Heather Hart about the matter.
CoE spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said the city moved swiftly to restore waste removal services in the affected areas.
Affected areas identified by the city included Langaville, Wattville, Daveyton-Etwatwa, Duduza, Kwa-Thema, Tembisa 1 and 2, Norkem Park, Thokoza and Palmridge.
Edenvale was not identified as one of the affected areas
Dlamini said the areas were affected due to a glitch that led to service providers not being paid and thus suspending their services.
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He said to help address the crisis the city, under the authority of the mayor, established a waste management turnaround task team.
“After engaging with the task team on November 10, service providers agreed to hit the ground running with immediate effect.”
The task teams’ purpose among others is to normalise waste removal services following the collapse of the services in some areas in recent weeks.
Re-elected Mayor Tanya Campbell said the task team, established by her, has a twofold mandate.
She said the first is to get the waste collection back on track with immediate effect.
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“I will be given daily progress reports by the task team to assess where the bottlenecks are and how they are being cleared,” said Campbell.
The second mandate is to investigate what has gone wrong in the department and has led to this collapse.
Mayoral spokesperson Warren Gwilt said that the city’s head of the Department for Environmental Resources and Waste Management, Faith Wotshela, was placed on administrative leave.
No reason was given as to why.
Gwilt explained that solid waste collection in the city came to a standstill following a three-week executive leadership vacuum.
In the hopes of clearing the backlog, Dlamini said teams were working around the clock to clear the backlog by the weekend of November 12 and 13.
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“We have addressed issues with the service providers who had pulled out their resources and work has resumed in earnest to collect waste in the affected areas,” emphasised Dlamini.
He said special attention would be given to clearing backlogs at local public off-loading facilities.
The city apologised to residents for the inconvenience and thanked them for their patience.
“COE can assure residents that we are committed to avoiding similar discrepancies going forward.”
Although the city provided updated information about the crises, several of the NEWS questions remained unanswered.
Dlamini said once collected the additional information will be provided to the NEWS as soon as it is made available.
The deadline was extended to November 14 at 09:00.
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