A couple from Carletonville had a harrowing experience while trying to dump their garden refuse at the Rooipoort rubbish dump last weekend.
The Rooipoort dump is the only facility where residents from all over the Merafong City Local Municipality may dump their rubbish legally. Ms Andrette Long, her husband, Henk, and their gardener went to the Rooipoort rubbish dump to offload some garden refuse at around 14:00 on Sunday. Her husband usually does this over weekends as he is away during the week. Long says she had decided to go with him this time as she wanted to get out a bit. She had been at home all week due to an ear operation the previous Monday. As they drove through the open gate at the terrain, they saw three men waving at them. As none of the men was wearing a face mask, Mr Long did not stop as he did not want to put them at unnecessary risk of catching the new coronavirus. While driving along, however, the gardener told the couple that he had overheard the men saying they would not let them out of the terrain unless they paid them.“We did not bring money with us and we were certainly not going to pay them a bribe,” says Long. As Mr Long often goes to the dump, they know they do not have to pay for dumping garden refuse. As a result, they continued driving into the terrain and offloaded their garden refuse at a designated area. As the gardener had predicted, the problems arose when they wanted to leave. “As we drove towards the gate, we saw that it was closed.