Political interference has brought a halt to the clean-up of the Nyati Road dump site. Ward 97 councillor Andre Beetge, who was spearheading the clean-up of the site which falls under neighbouring ward 93 and Cllr Thabisile Zungu, said Isipingo ward 90 councillor, Sunil Brijmohan apparently complained to the municipality that council workers who were designated to clean Isipingo, were being roped in to clean Nyathi Road.
“We have done clean-ups of the area and it is looking much better. The next one, scheduled for next week during Environmental Week, would have completed the project,” said Cllr Beetge.
“We have found the larger majority of the waste which is being dumped there illegally is the overflow of industrial and business waste from the Prospecton and Isipingo area located across the river, within the borders of ward 90.
That’s why it made sense to include Nyathi Road in the Isipingo clean-up exercise as we had all the roleplayers such as private, law enforcement and DSW involved, and everyone was excited about the project as we were working side by side towards a common goal. That was until one person complained and management decided to revoke the clean-up of the area.”
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Even more frustrating for Cllr Beetge is the clean-up of Isipingo has ground to a halt, so neither area will receive the attention it deservees in the upcoming week. Isipingo is only scheduled for focussed attention from 18 June onwards.
“It is very disappointing that someone can be so selfish to be directly responsible in halting the clean-up of an area. It is not even my ward but I can see it needs attention. The ward councillor’s apathy and her collegue’s failure to appreciate the bigger picture has now halted a very good exercise in a public-private partnership, which was starting to show positive results,” said Cllr Beetge.
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He encouraged users of the dumpsite and local residents to continue to report illegal dumping via email to kacey.naicker@durban.gov.za, so that a history of reports can be built up to force the municipality to render attention and include Nyathi Road into the priority area.
The SUN sent a query to Isipingo’s Cllr Brijmohan, who said as it was not his ward, he was not responsible for the municipality’s decision to halt the clean-up.
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