Management of the Rand West City Local Municipality (RWCLM) conducted a surprise clean-up operation and enforced compliance among businesses in Randfontein CBD on Monday May 16.
According to Lovey Modiba, the executive manager of the Department of Community Services who initiated the clean-up, it was done after numerous complaints were made to the municipality; especially stakeholders such as the Randfontein Taxi Association that put the RWLCM under pressure.
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“This also comes after we’ve done our rounds in the CBD and saw its unappealing state with rubbish almost everywhere,” Modiba said.
The other issue was that illegal dumping within the CBD was increasing rapidly, which was a big health hazard to many who frequent the precinct.
Modiba said as soon as they realised that the matter was getting out of hand they decided to leave their offices and go and confront the challenge as officials of the institution.
During the operation we saw that businesses in the precinct were responsible for most of the littering and illegal dumping, and gave them a stern warning that they could not keep doing it,” Modiba said.
With support of the West Rand District Health Services environmental health practitioners, Waste Management and Public Safety units and the Randfontein Police, they conducted the joint operation peacefully.
However, it was unfortunate that they were not joined by Local Economic Development representatives through whom they would’ve been able to ascertain the legality of many of the businesses in the CBD, as it the only unit responsible for issuing permits to informal traders.
We wanted to do things within the ambits of the law, and we avoided trampling on people’s rights, even those of the informal traders because the idea was to hold everyone responsible and make sure that there was no illegal dumping, and that waste was managed properly,” Modiba said.
