Illegal dumping, non-compliance with by-laws in Ward 124

JOHANNESBURG SOUTH – I am writing this letter directly to the residents of Ward 124 as an indication of dissatisfaction at the level of illegal dumping within the ward.

On a daily basis, I receive calls from residents of the ward asking pertinent questions about the high level of illegal dumping in the ward.

Sometime last year I undertook a tour of the ward accompanied by senior of officials of Pikitup from the Southdale depot, to have a first-hand experience of this cancer of illegal dumping. After the tour with the management from Pikitup, there was some levels of improvements as far as legal dumping is concerned.

And I have also noticed that, as soon as Pikitup cleans an area, there will be more dumping the following day.

I am making a very humble appeal to all residents on the corners of the streets that I am going to mention below to cooperate with Pikitup and stop dumping there or seek some assistance from Pikitup if you cannot cope with your rubbish.

The street corners where you will find regular illegal dumping are as follows: Corner Forest and Von Brandis; Kennedy and Von Brandis; Ferreira and Von Brandis; corner Ferreira and High; Great Britain and High; Von Brandis and Sheffield; Von Brandis and Devilliers; Bishop and Sheffield; Bishop and Fraizer; Church and Leonard; Kennedy and Moffet; Main and Church; Fraizer and Moffet; Leonard and Bertha; Van Huysteen and Donnelly; Beaumont and Chamber; Lindhorst and Fraizer.

These are our hot spots in terms of illegal dumping, we appeal to our community to cease dumping illegally.

I think in future we will put measures in place to penalise those who are dumping illegally.

Non-compliance with by–laws

There is a house at 67 Sheffield Street which is doing interior designs. This house is working on the pavement and they dump all their rubbish outside on the street, and I do not think the premises they are operating from is zoned for business purposes.

At the corner of Lindhorst and Fraizer there is panelbeating and spraypainting happening, also at the corner of Kennedy and Moffet, panelbeating and spraypainting.

These types of businesses cannot be conducted in a residential area, it is supposed to be conducted in an industrial area.

I would also appeal to these two premises to cease with their operations before the law enforcement agencies close them down.

The issue of spaza shops in the area is another matter of great concern, these houses where spaza shops are operating are not business premises.

Neither are these spaza shops in compliance with the by-laws of the City of Johannesburg; we warn the owners of these spaza shops to comply or face closure.

The mushrooming of scrap yards in the area is also becoming a big concern; we have scrap yards in the following areas:

On the corner of Stanton and Bishop streets; corner of Main and Church streets; two on the corner of Ferreira and High streets.

I don’t think these scrap yards are registered as businesses, and some of these scrap yards are working from the pavement.

Service lanes

The issue of weeds in the service lanes has been reported to JRA on a number of occasions, the last time I toured the area with some officials from JRA, to show them that the length of the weeds is a danger to the residents in these areas.

People can be raped and killed. I must say that after this tour I was promised that this matter would be addressed within three days, hope does not die, I am still hoping that they would address it.

Yours truly

ANC Clr Sydney Radebe