Residents said the continual illegal dumping at the corner of Corlett Drive and Whitney Street was devaluing their properties as no one would be willing to buy a house near a dump site.
Resident Roy Naidoo said, “This is disgusting, we have been complaining for years but with little help. We asked them to stop this nonsense, but instead what they do is just come and clean once, then the illegal dumpers come and dump again leaving our lives in hell.” Naidoo said they wanted the City of Joburg or Pikitup to barricade the corner to stop the illegal dumping.
Another resident, Radika Singh said they had complained about the problem, but Pikitup was not doing anything about the illegal dumping which had been going on for two years. Singh said, “We have been asking them to close off the illegal dumping site, but they failed to do so. For them to come and clean doesn’t solve the problem, we need them to stop this.”
The city council’s lack of communication was evident as it failed to respond to numerous queries sent by the North Eastern Tribune. On 30 April the only correspondence the paper received was from the city council’s public relations consultant company Ogilvy Public Relations. The company’s account manager, Valincia Reddy said, “ I have forwarded your previous response through to the relevant persons at Pikitup. They will now have to investigate further and will only be able to respond once the investigations are concluded.”
The paper has been waiting for a response from Pikitup since.
