Ikageng riddled with rubbish

‘Some days, you can smell it from inside the house. Anything from nappies to dead dogs.’
This is what Thuto Noge, a resident from Ikageng has to live with every day as illegal dumping takes place in the field right next to his house.

Most people in Ikageng have to deal with this constant frustration. Noge says residents have been using the field as a dumping site ever since he can remember and nothing has been done about it.

‘The only time the municipality comes to clean up is when we go to them and ask for a dump truck. The last time they did it was in August last year,’ he says.

For the past 26 years, Noge and his family have had to deal with people dumping their rubbish, broken furniture and construction rubble next to their house.

Even though refuse removal takes place at the houses in the neighbourhood, he says many people do not put their rubbish out to be collected, they would rather dump it in the field.

‘If the municipality would clean this up, cut the grass and put up a light, this area could be used as a park or something useful. But now, it is being used for rubbish and crime.’

He says people frequently sit against their wall smoking weed. ‘There have even been people having sex in parked cars here,’ he says.

‘I love living in this area. We have such a nice view but when you have this mess right next to you, it takes all of that beauty away.’

Most of Ikageng looks like this. The first thing you notice when you turn into Ikageng is a giant pile of rubbish on the corner.

Here, three men were trying to make the best of a bad situation by picking up glass bottles to recycle.
The high school up the street has tons of rubbish all along the fence as people dump it there on a daily basis.

All of the extensions of Ikageng are also riddled with rubbish and the stench of rotten food, dead animals and even human faeces linger in the air. This is what the residents have to live with every day.
The municipality has not yet commented on the situation.