Major clean-up on Malacca Road
Councillors say illegal dumping on Malacca Road remains a major issue.
JUST hours after Mpume Chamane, ANC PR councillor (Ward 35) spearheaded a clean-up in Malacca Road and Ryde Place last Saturday, an illegal dumper was caught red-handed, dumping his rubble, by the local Community Policing Forum. The man was forced to load the rubble and rubbish he’d dumped on Ryde Place back into his bakkie before being asked to move on.
Chamane, who organised the clean-up, involved the residents of the Malacca Road Informal Settlement as well as some local residents from the area.
“These people who are illegally dumping have no brains. When we arrived to start the clean-up in the morning we also found an illegal dumper on Malacca Road. We made him pick up his rubbish. The problem is three-fold: firstly, some people are not going to the dump as they should be doing, instead they are offloading items on the side of the road for members of the informal settlement to sift through. Or, the informal residents stop passing motorists, saying they’ll take their scrap and rubble.
“There are also contractors who are too lazy to drive to the Springfield Park dump and continue to dump illegally on the two roads. We stressed the importance of community involvement in stopping this scourge of illegal dumping. We told residents to take down the number plates and report them. I hope this clean-up will be the start of a cleaner Malacca Road,” Chamane said.
According to ward councillor, Heinz de Boer, dumping has been a persistent problem on these two roads.
“While we have seen a pleasing reduction in the dumping of household refuse over the past year, we have unfortunately seen an increase in contractors and home renovators dumping their rubbish in the bush,” De Boer said.
“I urge anyone going to the dump not to stop and allow the people from the settlement to pull things out of cars and bakkies. Unfortunately, as long as there are unscrupulous litterers who continue to use this area as a dump, the problem will continue. This despite the neighbourhood watch and ratepayers catching dumpers in the act,” he said.
