The City of Ekurhuleni has blamed a challenge with the management of the environmental waste management department as a reason for the almost collapse of refuse removal.
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The city shared this information with Bedfordview and Edenvale News in their response to the numerous residents who raised concerns about the lack of refuse collection.
Residents from the Avenues, Harmelia and Highway Gardens highlighted the lack of services and the potential health hazard at the end of February.
The longstanding issue, which has existed since last year and is affecting numerous suburbs in the city, has seen some residents go without any refuse collection for five weeks at a time.
Zweli Dlamini, CoE spokesperson, said the problem was noticed in the latter part of 2022 after the city received numerous complaints about the lack of waste removal services.
“This led to the head of the department being suspended, and a task team set up to normalise the situation.”
Dlamini said an investigation revealed the causes of the problems were a questionable management style, an ageing fleet and in some instances service providers being paid late.
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He said this led to the backlogs we had to deal with throughout the festive season.
“The service has improved tremendously and continues to improve as the task team continues to look at better ways to normalise things,” said Dlamini.
Some of the interventions proposed with immediate effect include purchasing a new fleet that will be more reliable.
Dlamini said this is one of the main items expected to be adopted by the council soon.
He said there are also plans to install devices on the refuse trucks that will assist the city in managing its daily movement and operations.
Dlamini said these devices would help ensure all rounds are covered daily.
In addition, the city announced on February 27 it was embarking on a waste collection and cleaning blitz.
The MMC for the Environment and Waste Management, Brandon Pretorius, said the blitz was initiated to normalise regular, scheduled collection in Ekurhuleni.
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CoE, through the approval of a plant hire tender, received 36 vehicles. Pretorius said the new additions bolstered the fleet to full capacity.
“In the coming days, our fleet will be working around the clock to ensure the clearing of all backlogs.”
He said routine collection should commence unabated from the start of March.
Apologising to residents, Pretorius believed they could turn around the problem of waste collection.
“It is of the utmost importance that the city replaces its in-house fleet and only uses this plant hire tender as and when needed.”
