The list of Pikitup problems is getting longer and longer.
Towards the end of 2019, residents noted a significant delay in the collection rates of their refuse, and the problems have grown from there.
The refuse entity has said that the backlog has been largely due to a shortage on staff and lack of maintenance on their trucks, which has lead to breakdowns.
In February, the backlog increased due to a strike by Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers who had not been paid for their festive season contracts.
Residents have now been reporting that their rubbish has not been collected from as far back as last week Wednesday, 26 February.
On Monday, 2 March, Pikitup refuse loaders staged a sit in after not receiving rain jackets that were promised to them at the beginning of February.
Despite offers from the entity to allow the workers to use the coats that were in stock, the workers refused to do their collections.
The sit in continued over Tuesday with no collections being done despite Pikitup management’s best efforts to rectify the situation.
Yesterday, Wednesday, 4 March, the issue seemed to have been resolved with Pikitup refuse loaders doing the day’s collections as well as last week Wednesday’s. However, the service was short lived.
Today, 5 March, the entity ran into another problem. Pikitup released a statement saying that the workers who had refused to work on Monday and Tuesday were not happy when they found out that they would not be paid for those two days and did not want to work again.
They received instructions to return to their jobs, which they begrudgingly did, but they only did rounds scheduled for today and did not attempt to catch up on the backlog.
Pikitup has said that there will be further consultations tomorrow morning, and feedback as to the way forward will be announced afterwards.
