EVANDER – For residents of Evander this would be the third week that refuse has not been removed.
For the residents it is frustrating as they are paying for services not being rendered.
“Why do we pay for service not rendered? Why do they charge us every month but they can collect as and when they want to? We are charged for refuse removal but get no service,” said an angry resident.
“It is disgusting! We are going to get sick with the rubbish that has been piling up for weeks,” said a disgruntled resident on the local Safer Evander Facebook group.
“It is time Evander residents stand together and do something. All services are getting worse and we are paying for the services,” said the resident.
She said she must fork out money for someone to collect her refuse because three weeks had passed with no rubbish being picked up.
“How can we pay both the municipality and someone else to collect?
“GMM should be ashamed because they cannot do their jobs, they take no responsibility for the poor work they doing.”
Although GMM received three new refuse removal vehicles in January this year, there still seems to be challenges providing all towns in GMM with the service of refuse removal.
Ridge Times spoke to DA councillor, Ms Mariaan Chamberlain, who said the problem with refuse removal is a problem for the whole GMM and not just in Evander.
“eMbalenhle does not have one operational refuse truck, Secunda is suppose to have five but there is only one, in Evander there are two trucks which are not operational.”
She said Bethal has two trucks of which both should be operational.
Residents were also up in arms when a message was circulating on social media groups saying they are spoiled for having their refuse removed weekly when the fee paid for is a monthly service.
Ms Chamberlain said the deputy director does not know from where this story came that they are only obliged to remove refuse once a month.
“We are billed a monthly fee, they don’t bill it weekly. The largest part of a payment made goes to the landfill site.
“The removal of the waste, according to the national environmental waste act, must be removed once a week,” said Ms Chamberlain.
However, if refuse is not collected in that week due to backlogs or non-operational vehicles, the refuse must be collected within the second week.
According to Ms Chamberlain, the deputy director said it is unacceptable for residents to be seeing the third week of refuse not being removed.
Mr Donald Green, acting head of communication for GMM, said GMM offers its sincere apology to the community for the non-removal of waste over the past weeks which has caused an enormous backlog.
“This is as a result of multiple break downs and slow repairs that we have been experiencing,” said Mr Green.
He said they are working around the clock to address the backlog with a very limited fleet of trucks.
Mr Green mentioned that as soon as the backlog has been cleared, the municipality will be able to resume with scheduled removals.
“Refuse does not belong to the municipality and it remains the responsibility of the resident to take uncollected waste back into his or her yard until it can be collected.
“No municipal accounts would be amended due to waste not collected, as households pay a once-off tariff per month, and not for weekly removal,” said Mr Green.
He said that in terms of service standards the municipality can collect refuse up to four times a month. He stated that residents cannot claim back the cost of private refuse removal services from the municipality.
“If a resident decided to make use of a private company to remove its waste, it is the resident’s own choice and own account.
“Residents can also make use of the municipal landfill site free of charge. The cost to maintain the site is gained from the refuse removal tariff,” ended Mr Green.
