Ward 97 councillor, Andre Beetge was left frustrated after a clean-up of Amanzimtoti taxi rank yielded no positive results.
After battling to get various municipal departments on board to work in unison to conduct a clean-up of the rank on Friday, 20 April, Cllr Beetge said by the afternoon the area looked much the same before all their hard work.
“Durban Solid Waste (DSW), the city’s health department, brought their education unit to interact with the public and a clean-up was conducted from the Toti River to the northside of the rank. All the rubbish was cleared but by the afternoon, despite our efforts, it looked exactly the same,” said Cllr Beetge. “The reality is people just don’t seem to care and they dump their litter wherever they want.”
Cllr Beetge said some positive news has come from the exercise. Representatives from the landowners, the Public Rail Association of South Africa (PRASA), who failed to pitch at a planning meeting on 17 April ahead of the clean-up, have now come on board. It will meet with a multi-disciplinary task team in May to also focus on other problems being experienced in the CBD, such as urban decay, drug dealing and prostitution. “Our focus in these areas will be ongoing,” said Cllr Beetge.
Another Toti site which recently received a clean-up was the Nyathi Road dumpsite on Friday, 4 April. DSW, roads, law enforcement, Metro Police, compliance and enforcement, emergency services and the parks department were some of the many groups who partnered with Sasol in an effort to rehabilitate the area.
Cllr Beetge got involved in the clean-up initiative of illegal dumping and overgrowth along Nyati Road, Athlone Park, which falls outside his ward and is part of neighbouring ward 93. “We now need to look at sustainability going forward,” he said. “The sad reality is people still continue to dump there illegally and it is people from the immediate surrounding area.”
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Plans are in the pipeline about how to deter those who dump illegally. The installation of CCTV cameras, as well as introducing a boom gate where those entering the road will have to produce a ticket, ensuring they actually visited and used the official Nyati Road dumpsite, are some of the ideas being considered.
The community’s involvement is crucial to ensure the littered road returns to normality and remains that way. Those who see any person, business or company dumping along the road are urged to take photos or videos of the act.
Being willing to testify in court and complete an affidavit, they must then mail those photos or video footage to Isipingo Metro Police’s Captain Kaicey Naicker at kaicey.naicker@durban.gov.za.
