CLR PHILLIP DE LANGE, DA leader in Ekurhuleni, writes:
I write to you in response to the letter written by Imogen Larsen in your September 21 edition, titled Wheelie bin theft will be rife.
It should be stated upfront that Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality has taken the decision to move towards removing only refuse in wheelie bins in the future in the respective wards. This is a political directive from the governing ANC coalition passed in council.
The DA recognises some of the challenges with this system, as you have highlighted in your letter, such as the lack of planning, the slow roll-out of the system and increasing theft of the wheelie bins.
As a party, we are committed to putting pressure on waste management services to ensure that the new system functions as efficiently and effectively as possible in the interest of service delivery.
In the City of Cape Town, measures have been put in place such as the roll-out of a tagging initiative to help monitor and recover bins. The DA of Ekurhuleni urges the metro to follow the example of the City of Cape Town in implementing such innovative initiatives to improve the overall refuse collection experience.
Going forward, we also intend to hold the municipality to strict account with regard to refuse collection in the metro in order to eliminate inefficiencies and ultimately improve service delivery to the people of Ekurhuleni.
