The Democratic Alliance’s Joburg East constituency hosted a public meeting in Kensington on October 3.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the City of Johannesburg’s plan to fight illegal dumping in the city.
The meeting was attended by MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Nico de Jager, Ward 118 Clr Neuren Pietersen and other officials from the DA.
Residents from Ward 118 and Ward 66 attended the meeting, where several expressed their frustrations about illegal dumping in both wards.
Residents urged the city to address garden sites charging people, Pikitup workers not cleaning the streets properly and the need for supervision, blocked drains, a lack of efficient waste collection, awareness about waste separation and theft of wheelie bins.
Residents also questioned whether the A Re Sebetseng initiative is working. De Jager said they are aware of the challenges residents face and said they are trying to address the concerns.
“Illegal dumping is a problem and some areas are far worse than the Kensington area.
“Initiatives like A Re Sebetseng is aimed at changing the attitude of residents about illegal dumping and encourage every citizen to be responsible and look after their neighbourhoods. Residents also need to take action and work with the city,” said de Jager.
He thanked Sue Retallack, founder of Clean Village, for her initiative for keeping Kensington clean.
He urged communities to come up with their own initiatives on how to keep their neighbourhoods clean.
“Clean Village is one of the best examples of taking action as residents. The city does not have the money to go around educating people about waste separation, recycling and dangers of illegal dumping. The money we save we channel to the most needy areas in the city.
“We cannot afford to go around the city educating people, but we encourage people to come up with ways on how they can keep the city clean. We all have a responsibility to keep the city clean and this will not be achieved overnight, but it will require everyone to be involved,” said de Jager.
On the issue of garden sites charging people, de Jager encouraged residents to report such cases immediately if possible while on site.
“People should not be charged. Those garden sites are there for the community to manage their waste. We encourage residents to report these incidents,” said de Jager.
The MMC said the reality is Pikitup does not have a budget to meet all the city’s needs.
“We need to face facts. We cannot demand first-world solutions to work in a third-world country. We need to be realistic in what we can do and try to build from that,” said de Jager.
The city implemented the mandatory separation of waste in July 2018.
The waste separation at source programme refers to households setting aside dry recyclable waste (plastic, paper, glass and cans) and household-generated garden waste for the purpose of reuse, recycling, composting or further processing of these materials.
The programme encourages residents to separate their waste at their homes, utilising a three-receptacle model.
In addition to the regular black bin, each household that forms part of the programme is issued with a reusable bag for paper and a clear bag for other types of recyclables.
This means that only waste that cannot be recycled ends up in the black bins.
For information on mandatory separation-at-waste guidelines visit www.pikitup.co.za
