Residents begging for decades of filth to be removed

For as long as residents can recall, the dumping site further down Lekhele street has been piling up for many years. Despite the municipality’s recent cleaning campaign, residents have resorted to consistently dumping their waste in this area. 

Dipuo Tsholo who lives across the dumping site says when she moved to the area in 2011, she had already found the site there. According to her, the municipality has come a few times in an attempt to clear the area, however, very quickly it is the same again. 

“ Even now, as you can see, the waste has been set alight. It is the municipal people who were just here that did that instead of completely cleaning it up,” Tsholo explained. 

According to the resident, people throw all sorts of things in the heap, just recently she saw a dead dog in the midst of the waste. Like many other residents Tsholo has to cross the dumping site on a daily basis just to get water from the communal tap which is difficult as the smell is unbearable. 

Another passerby, Matlomela Lucas Lekweto, who also often makes use of the route next to the site says he is more concerned about the children who often play around in the area. According to him, the size of the frogs that come out of the area is unbelieve and to make things worse, the area, generally, is not safe.

“It is not safe for our children to play here. The area is filthy and we have heard of many cases where people are raped here because it is a secluded area,” he said. 

“ I really fail to understand how community members can be so nonchalant about the state of the environment that they live in, this is not safe at all,” he lamented. 

Tsholo added that he wishes the community would work hand in hand with the municipality to ensure that the area was kept clean and safe, especially for the children. 

The acting municipal spokesperson, Jeanette Tshite, says the municipality’s recent cleaning campaign that commenced officially in October 2022 was meant to cover all areas / wards within the Municipality’s jurisdiction. “Unfortunately all hotspots  cannot be attended to at once and the scale of waste accumulation in those hotspot areas increases  on a daily basis,” she said. 

Tshite added that there is currently a plan to place mass skip bins on certain prevalent areas as means  of intervention to reduce illegal waste problems. “Residents are once again encouraged to make use of the waste removal trucks of the municipality  that collect waste throughout the wards on a weekly basis,” she concluded.