Refiloe Nt’sekhe, DA political head Kempton Park, writes:
I thought I would share this information with the residents of Kempton Park.
As a member of the Gauteng legislature, I asked questions about our recently introduced wheelie bins in our area.
The responses from our MEC of Community Safety (ES Nkosi-Malobane) indicated the following: since November 2017 to May 2018, Kempton Park Police Station recorded 10 wheelie bins being stolen, while Norkem Park Police Station recorded nine.
The prices quoted by residents varied between R150 and R4 000: one can only conclude that the waste department doesn’t even tell us how much these bins are even worth, therefore residents guess.
Residents pretty much only go to the police station to open a case because they need a case number to get a replacement bin. While 19 bins were stolen only one was recovered. That’s a five per cent recovery rate.
Police are already very stretched with our crime-ridden neighbourhoods and having to be taken away for 30 minutes to open a case about a wheelie bin is really a waste of resources. Why can’t the waste department or the customer care centre deal with such matters?
I will be lobbying Kempton councillors Jaco Terblanche, Gideon van Zyl and Desmond Mckenzie to propose such a motion to the council. If approved by the Ekurhuleni Municipality, then it will become a by-law and save the police much needed time to attend to reduce other crimes in our neighbourhoods.
