Residents urged to help stop illegal dumping on the North Coast

Dolphin Coast Waste Management (DCWM) director Mandla Mayise has pleaded with residents to continue to help fight illegal dumping.

“Residents must please help with the policing that is needed to bring an end to illegal dumping,” said Mayise, who conceded that it is harder to manage illegal waste disposals when they happen in secluded areas.

“We need community members to continue to report illegal dumping to the municipality when and where they see it,” said Mayise.

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Residents are urged to take photographs and try as far as possible to get the car registration numbers of illegal dumpers when they are caught in the act.

The Democratic Alliance’s ward six (Ballito) councillor Tammy Colley said residents needed to be vigilant at all times.

“The trend seems to be that most of the illegal dumping comes from independent contractors and local businesses that dump wherever is convenient for them, because they are trying to avoid paying for proper waste removal”.

“We are going to need a multifaceted approach to manage and eventually bring an end to the problem – an approach which includes residents, companies like DCWM and the municipality,” said Colley.

Wilson Mhlongo, KwaDukuza Municipality’s waste manager, reminds all residents that the correct procedure to follow for reporting illegal dumping is to call the waste management office on: 032 437 5091.

Calls are recorded in the complaints book.

If the complainant has taken the illegal dumper’s car registration number, this must be provided to the office as part of the complaint.

“What we do as the municipality is that through our bylaws we issue fines and even go as far as prosecution,” said Mhlongo.

He warned offenders that they face fines as well as the clean-up and rehabilitation of affected areas.

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