Observatory residents are fed up with the mountains of rubbish lining the streets and they have called for the municipality to do something drastic in order to curb the problem.
Ms Wendy Michaelis drives past Kloof and Fredericks streets every day and she says what she sees makes her sick.
“The streets are dirty from the top to the bottom. The bins in the park on Kloof Street are never emptied and trash is everywhere. Where I pay rates, I need it to be clean,” she said.
She also complained about the building rubble left on the pavements by builders and residents in the area.
“People just don’t care because you find the rubble thrown out on the pavements after the work is done. It is not removed,” she added.
Ms Ina Loizides, also a resident in the area, urged residents to look after their pavements.
“Observatory is known as a gem, but it is no longer. We have a councillor but we never hear from him and he is never in the area. Why do we have to complain first before they act? The park should be cleaned at least once a week,” she added.
The ward 66 councillor, Clr Carlos da Rocha, was also in the area when the EXPRESS visited.
He expressed his concerns with the way Pikitup operates.
“Councillors are there to receive complaints from residents and escalate to the relevant people, but now I find myself playing supervisor to the Pikitup workers. I had to call them when I arrived in the area to come and clean up,” he said.
The residents are also complaining about the lack of supervision from Pikitup.
They claim workers are never supervised when they do their work.
“The state of our streets is getting worse by the day,” said Ms Loizides.
Clr Mike Spadino said he has reported the problem to Pikitup on numerous occasions but the attempts have been unsuccessful.
“As a councillor, I can only request them to do a clean-up of the area. We also have a problem with illegal dumping,” he said.
“As for the residents not seeing me in the area, that is incorrect because last Monday I was in Bruma and Cyrildene. On Sunday I drove through the area around Athlone Girls School, looking at the state of the suburb. Obviously, when I go to the area the residents complaining do not see me, as I go at different times and do not tell anyone I am coming to area,” he said.
A request for comment was forwarded to Pikitup. At the time of going to print, no comment had been received.
