Keep waste in your property – CoE urges residents

Kempton Park residents have had to endure weeks of piled-up refuse at their homes and businesses.

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For almost a month, residents in various areas have taken their wheelie bins out on collection days only to return them to their properties later still filled to the brim.

Some areas including Norkem Park and Birchleigh North seemed, for a while, to have been exempted from the non-collection of refuse.

Now, the non-collection of waste has caught up with the areas which has now resulted in two weeks of zero refuse collection.

Adding to the resident, frustration was the lack of communication from the city and its officials on the reasons behind the non-collection and a plan of action to rectify the situation.

Revised schedules attempting to clear backlogs were issued in previous weeks, however, even when that seemed like a step in the right direction, many residents in Kempton Park were still faced with weeks of piled-up refuse, even on the revised scheduled days.

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This has increased illegal dumping across the town and at open fields and outside transfer stations.

Residents have also shared their dissatisfaction with ward councillors who have stated that they too are in the dark regarding the matter.

“I have been in contact with the HOD and divisional head since the contractor responsible for waste collection in Norkem Park and Birchleigh North suspended their services due to non-payment from the municipality,” said Ward 91 Clr Desmond McKenzie.

“I’ve also escalated to the city manager but have yet to receive a response or specific plans outlining how they intend to solve this issue and their strategies for dealing with the backlog.

“The department and the city have not officially informed residents of the reasons for this and the only thing that the HOD indicated is that they have submitted all the invoices to the finance department.

“Residents are not interested in anything except that they are paying for services and expect the department to collect their refuse.

“I have also voiced the outcry of the residents, the outcry of the dump site, the growing environmental health risk and the non-payment of contractors.”

Ward 15 Clr Amanda Davison added that her efforts were also fruitless.

“Kempton Park is meant to have 11 trucks to collect refuse, however, currently, there are only two for the entire area,” said Davison on the morning of November 7.

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“I suggested for skipper bins to be placed outside transfer stations and other areas strategically in the meantime to assist with the backlog but I still haven’t received any response to this and no skips have been placed.

“This would also help reduce the illegal dumping taking place.”

Express contacted the city to get clarity on the matter.

The enquiry sent to the CoE focused on reasons for the non-collection of refuse and why some areas received services while others did not.

Questions to the city included what was being done to fix the problem, when residents could expect the full restoration of services and when it was expected for the backlog to be fully cleared.

However, instead of responding to the questions posed, Express was referred to a statement issued by the city on the morning of November 7.

“The City of Ekurhuleni would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused to all residents as a result of the disruption in refuse collection services affecting Tsakani, Langaville, Wattville, Daveyton, Etwatwa, Duduza, Kwa-Thema, Tembisa 1 and 2, Norkem Park, Thokoza and Palm Ridge,” said CoE spokesperson Zweli Dlamini in the statement.

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“We would like to assure residents that every effort is being made to ensure that service providers responsible for providing waste collection services and management of public offloading facilities in the affected areas on behalf of the city return to service.

“To protect residents and the general public’s clean and healthy environment, residents are advised to keep their bins within their properties until further notice and we further would like to plead with residents not to resort to illegal dumping if delays cause refuse to build-up to the point where it cannot fit in the wheelie bins,” Dlamini said.

He added that during this period residents could place excess waste into bags next to their wheelie bin for removal on the day of collection to be advised.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused and can assure residents that we are working as quickly as possible to ensure that this disruption is indeed resolved.”

Residents were urged to report non-collection of their waste to the CoE call centre on 0860 54 3000.

“We can assure residents that we remain committed to our mandate of ensuring that quality waste management services are provided to all our residents and that an acceptable level of cleanliness is achieved in our City and we will provide constant updates to residents regarding the resumption of waste collection services and re-opening of the public offloading facilities,” said Dlamini.

“Meanwhile, the city would discourage people from discarding their waste at municipal buildings and open spaces as this may lead to health-related risks and have a negative impact on the environment.”

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Express has since sent another enquiry to the city questioning the alleged non-payment of the contractors.

An enquiry was sent on Monday afternoon and an urgent comment was requested by Tuesday morning at 09:00.
At the time of going to print, no comment was received.

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