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.

One of the men, who was now wearing a mask, was blocking it,” says Long. The man was also holding a screwdriver. The couple, with the gardener on the back of the bakkie, turned back into the dump and continued driving around while trying to figure out what to do next. In the end, Mrs Long contacted her ward councillor, Mr Carlos Rebelo, who called Gladiator Security and the police to come to their rescue. While waiting for help to arrive, the couple drove towards the gate and tried to find a way out themselves. After they stopped at the gate and the men still refused to let them leave, Mr Long got out of the bakkie and broke open the padlock that one of the men had put on the gate to keep them in. While this was happening, someone among a group of men who had now gathered near the gate tried to jump into the bakkie and grab the keys. He only got out when Mrs Long and the gardener fought him off and she yanked the key from the ignition. “At this stage, more than ten men were standing at the gate.” They were eventually able to get out after Gladiator arrived at the scene. Illegal rubbish dumping is a growing concern in the area. In the past, people who had dumped illegally had claimed that they do not feel safe driving to the Rooipoort dump.

Although questions relating to the matter were sent to the  municipality, no answers