Ekurhuleni waste woes deepen

Sadly, it’s always ratepayers who suffer and are merely pawns in political battles.

Waste management in Ekurhuleni has reached tipping point after the main contractor, Waste Partners, informed subcontractors it was not yet in a position to pay them, with fears of uncollected rubbish resurfacing.

The region has been plagued by poor waste collection for a while and claims of rampant corruption are believed to be at the heart of it.

It’s easy for Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini to say “there was no waste collection in the past weeks due to a misunderstanding around payment issues”, but residents have to deal with the mess and “the misunderstanding”.

ALSO READ: Waste collection crisis in Ekurhuleni

Sources believe a panel that was set up is “there to serve the interests of politicians, not appointing competent people with expertise”.

Former executive mayor Tania Campbell confirmed this. “When I was voted out of office, barely two weeks later a R2 billion security tender went through. How on earth do you do that within two weeks of a new government being sworn in? There are processes a tender has to go through. If a political party has an interest with a certain contractor, they push for it to get the tender.”

Shame on you, City of Ekurhuleni.