Randfontein is far from being Perfectville

• David Bradley from Greenhills writes:

I have seen several articles in the Randfontein Westonaria Herald about illegal dumping of rubbish, but no explanations as to why.

Well allow me explain.

In Perfectville, you drive down a tarred road to the municipal dumping site where you are greeted in the language of your choice by a friendly municipal worker who politely asks you what you are dumping so that he can direct you to the correct section at the dumping site.

When you reach this area, you are met by another smiling, happy municipal worker, who helps you unload your rubbish and sweeps your vehicle before you leave.

However this is not Perfectville, this is Randfontein, where you drive down a long dirt road full of potholes and bad surfaces.

If you have any regard for your vehicle, you will drive slowly but unfortunately there are creatures lurking in these rough areas who run behind your vehicle and with a bakkie, they jump on the back and rip the canvas off to see what is inside.

When travelling with a car, they try to yank the boot or the car doors open to see what is inside.

All this while the vehicles are still moving.

After managing to survive this attack, you reach the weighbridge at the dumping site entrance.

There are no signs to show you where to take garden, building or domestic rubbish.

It’s just a vast open area and if you stop at the weighbridge for directions, the staff there just waves you through.

You could dump toxic waste, old dynamite or amputated limbs from the hospital; they don’t care, as long as you don’t interrupt their conversation.

So you head for a group of municipal workers who are sorting through the rubbish, only to find out they are not municipal workers.

These are the privateers who do not work for the municipality and are there to collect whatever they can for themselves.

As you slow down, they swarm around you and its every man and woman for themselves.

Before you can even stop the vehicle, they have ripped the boot open or torn the canvas cover from the bakkie and everything has been snatched out.

By the time you have switched off the engine and got out, your rubbish, your spare wheel, jack, wheel spanner, a warning triangle, and anything else that was in the vehicle is disappearing in several directions at the same time and being fought over by these privateers.

This is definitely not a place to send your wives and daughters, with people jumping on your vehicle and grabbing and fighting over everything in sight without even asking for your permission.

The next time I go there, there will be two of us – one driving and the other carrying a tree branch or a steel pipe to ward off these attackers.

So to avoid the trauma and panic of trying to dump rubbish legally at the municipal dumping site, ordinary people just dump it in waste land and risk the fines.

An appearance in court is preferable to an appearance at the municipal dumping site and until the municipality gets their act together and gets some organization to control the dumping site, people will continue to dump their rubbish in town.

I don’t condone these people’s actions but I understand and sympathize with them.