Greater Tzaneen Municipality (GTM) are working on a number of ways to combat the war on waste in the rural areas surrounding Tzaneen.

Rural areas have been split into 66 demarcated areas known as Waste Service Areas or W.S.A’s. Each W.S.A encompasses approximately 1200 – 1500 households.

Fourty of these 66 areas are managed under a community based initiative, employing 465 people as beneficiaries under the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).

The EPW Programme ensures that each worker is given 12 working days per month (3 days per week) at a minimum wage as determined by the Minster and is provided with the necessary personal protective equipment.

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They are scheduled to collect waste from each household as well as conduct a “chicken parade” on streets, open land and wetlands, collecting strewn litter.

These rural projects are conducted under the oversight of the Traditional Leadership and the Ward committee in ensuring the work is done in accordance with schedules.

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Furthermore, the workers are encouraged to separate recyclable materials at source, to sell it to one of the two licensed recycling companies and are paid per weight.

An additional service offered by GTM is the collection of soiled baby nappies on a Sunday morning from the tar roads throughout rural areas on a ’round robin’ basis. Communities are required to place nappies in plastic bags at the road edges.

In June 2017, four new EPWP Waste Development Workers (WDWs) were employed in the rural sectors.

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Each of the WDWs were employed due to their qualifications, skills and backgrounds in environmental studies.

The four workers audit each of the demarcated areas two times per year and they must complete a score card during each visit, assessing the cleanliness of the rural area and efficiency of the EPWP workers in that zone.

The score cards are signed off by the local chief and the ward councillor. An additional scheme by GTM that serves to sustain rural areas involves the delivery of wood. Wood that is dumped at the landfill site in Tzaneen is taken to the rural areas in the empty recycling trucks, on their way to collect recyclable materials.

The wood is available for community members to use for their fires, ultimately aiming to reduce the amount of trees that are chopped down in rural areas. This multi-faceted management plan by GTM is making a huge difference in our rural areas and going a long way to fight the ongoing war on waste.