A pall of sadness has enveloped the Crisis Centre on Birkett Street. The Centre’s feeding scheme – that over the last eight years or more has feed thousands of disadvantaged, mainly elderly people in the community as part of the Centre’s ‘plastic waste for food’ project.

The scheme has been widely heralded by the Endumeni Council and Department of Environmental Affairs as an imaginative way of cleaning up the town by encouraging the disadvantaged to pick up mainly plastic waste scattered about town in exchange for a food voucher.

The voucher entitled the waste collector to a juice, yoghurt or maas donated by Orange Grove. The project was even part of Endumeni Council’s presentation on the Greenest Town in KZN competition.

Ironically, it is the Endumeni Council that has sounded the death knell. This, after complaints from residents on Birkett Street who claim the hundreds of people who queue up to receive food three times a week are a source of litter, noise and general disruption.

The Department of Social Welfare’s Mrs SS Mazibuko, Social Development Manager in the area, made a presentation to Council following an investigation into the complaints
She told Council that during the visits by KZN Premier Senzo Mchunu, residents from the Birkett Street area said they are not happy with the way the centre operates. Residents claimed that there are a large number of people, who come to collect food, but they have no access to toilets or water, therefore they pollute the area. Apparently the area has also turned into a ‘gambling zone’.
Residents felt that as they pay rates they may have say in what goes on in the area. They complained that open areas near the centre are being used as ‘toilets’.
Mrs Mazibuko told Council that the centre was established specifically to provide shelter to abused victims, not feed the community.
“NPO organisations must operate according to the purposes for which they are registered. A committee was formed, represented by various departments, to investigate this matter. They came to the conclusion that the distribution must come to an end from the present premises.”

Carol Bradley responds

Carol Bradley who oversees the feeding scheme said they had reacted to the complaints and ensured that by 10.3am all food is distributed and the street cleaned up. “Ironically, judging by the rest of Dundee this section of Dundee is probably the cleanest around,” she said, adding that it was strange that the Council had not taken action against an illegal shebeen operating in the area from also a municipal-owned house.

The feeding scheme has enjoyed widespread support from local businesses and organisations such as Rotary some of whose members are also volunteers.

The last feeding day is December 31. “We have told the people who come here that from January 1 there will be no more food for waste. I don’t think the reality has set in yet.”

A last-minute reprieve did not materialise from the powers-that-be in the municipality. The possibility of the Centre using the Wesleyan Church premises on McKenzie Street also fell through after it became unclear who the legal owners of the property area.

Carol says she hopes the public will still bring waste to the Centre. “We can recycle to obtain money to plough money back into the scheme and hope to continue to deliver food to rural schools – however, there will be no more meals served from here.”

“