A WESTVILLE North resident has been forced to fork out additional funds each month to purchase black bin bags for her home as she has not received any since January this year.
“Our last delivery, which was in January, lasted us for three months. We go through three bags per week for a family of six. It costs us between R50 to R80 per roll refill, depending on whether or not there was a sale,” said an irate Premie Poovalingam.
“As far as I’m concerned, it is poor service delivery. What were they doing if they knew the supplier could not supply? Why was there no backup supplier?”
Poovalingam called for a reimbursement or a reduction to her rates.
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The response she received from the City stated: “Refuse bags are supplied to all customers and charged together with the collection of waste, therefore not charged separately.
The bags are a subsidized service given to the residence (sic).
“If the municipality would charge the actual cost of removing residential waste from your house to the landfill site it would be too much for the residence (sic) to pay. Therefore, it is not possible to refund you based on non-receipt of bags as your waste was collected.”
It noted that she would instead receive a back supply for the quarters in which she did not receive black bags.
“They are charging me R204 per month to collect my refuse but they can’t supply me with the bags to put my refuse into. Everyone in the area should ask for a rebate on their refuse to use the money to purchase their bin bags,” she said.
Another Westville North resident who was hard-hit by the lack of black bags, Ferida Khan, said she lives off of her state pension and that losing R80 from R1 900 per month was a large loss.
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“With Covid-19, it has become difficult as everything has gone up in price and black bags are not cheap. I’m a pensioner and I only received an increase of R30 to my pension.”
Ward 30 councillor, Warren Burne said it was a common problem in many parts of the eThekwini Municipality.
The eThekwini Municipality failed to comment by the time of going to print.
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