On January 31, it was brought to my attention that there was a dead dog in the park at the corner of Valda and Mabel streets, Townsview.
As soon as I was made aware of the issue, I passed on the information to Pikitup, who are usually quick to remove a dead animal’s carcass. However, several hours lapsed and the dog’s carcass was still there.
This was especially problematic as it was located near the Townsview Primary School, and the learners were going to have to play around this dead animal after being released from school. I then phoned the Pikitup depot manager and asked why the animal had not yet been collected; I was told because it is located within a park, City Parks had to deal with it. I immediately wrote to City Parks, but by that evening the dog had still not been removed. I then phoned Pikitup and pleaded with them to collect the dog even though it was in the park.
Pikitup then informed me they would not be able to take the dog away because their contract with the company that has the equipment to collect animal carcasses had expired. I was completely taken aback by this answer as the removal of dead animals is surely a daily occurrence. Furthermore, the animal’s body was now starting to rot and that was causing a huge health hazard to the surrounding communities.
In such an instance, a municipality cannot just fold its arms and say they cannot assist. They have to help even if it is outsourced. Later on, Friday evening, I got hold of someone higher up in City Parks who said he will assist with getting it removed the next morning. However, the following morning he gave me the number of the people at the Pikitup Southdale, which was the same people I had been liaising with the whole of Friday to get the animal removed, without success. The regional manager of City Parks then got in touch with me and said she would not be able to get her staff to remove the animal because it would violate her workers’ health and safety rights. I can understand this, but as I mentioned earlier, they were then supposed to outsource the service.
In addition to liaising with Pikitup and City Parks, I also sent WhatsApp messages on the Friday to MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services councillor Mpho Moerane, whose portfolio Pikitup falls under, as well as MMC for Community Development Clr Margaret Arnolds, whose portfolio City Parks falls under. By Saturday morning, I had not received a response from either of them, so I wrote an email to both of them and tagged them in a tweet.
Eventually, on Saturday at 4.44pm, Clr Moerane replied to my email saying he had instructed Pikitup to remove the dog. On Sunday morning, a Pikitup official from the inner-city got in touch with me and came through with the relevant equipment to remove this dead animal.
While I thank the MMC for his intervention, it is unfortunate that the dog’s body was allowed to be there for two whole days. This led to it rotting and becoming a huge health hazard. Clr Arnolds replied on February 3 at 2.25pm to inform me that the dog had been removed.
I will be submitting a question to Clr Moerane to find out the status of the contract to remove dead animal carcasses.
Regards,
Clr Michael Crichton
City Parks and Pikitup were asked for comment:
“The issue has been resolved and Pikitup would like to apologise for the delays in removing the carcass. The delays were occasioned by the fact that the responsible depot had to request the equipment from another depot to be able to remove the said dog,” Muzi Mkhwanazi from Pikitup commented on February 17.
Jenny Moodley, general manager for stakeholder and public relations at City Parks, commented on February 6: “Thank you for the media enquiry. While Pikitup oversees this function in the city, it is important that this matter once brought to the attention of City Parks is escalated to our counterparts in the region. Please ask the writer to forward to us the relevant emails to enable us to investigate and revert to you with further comment.”
All the relevant communications were sent through to City Parks and Pikitup. At the time of going to press, no further comment had been received from Pikitup, City Parks, Jenny Moodley or Moerane.
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