Illegal dumping takes a toll on Pretoria West
Illegal dumping a problem for residents in Pretoria West.
Illegal dumping in Pretoria West is getting out of hand, according to residents in the area.
For months, residents have been complaining about the illegal dumping in WF Nkomo Street, Retief Street, Christoffel Street, Luttig and President Burger Street.
Resident Cosette Heyns said she had been living in the area for eight years, and the illegal dumping was an eyesore.
“There is always dumping on street corners and this smells very badly. There is also dumping in front of our yard and it looks really bad,” she said.
“We have to hire someone to clear it for us and it costs us R150 per day. The Tshwane metro workers sometimes clean, but after a long time.”
She said the dumping was not fair on the residents. She also said other problems included streetlights being dysfunctional and water leaks.
Resident Jo Muhammad said residents were to blame for the illegal dumping because they just threw everything anywhere.
But law abiding citizens are having a tough time dumping legally.
Residents in Phillip Nel Park have complained that staff at the dumpsite kept irregular hours — not as advertised on a notice at the gate.
Ren Joubert said he had often been to the dumpsite and found it closed.
“Recently I went to the dumpsite in Phillip Nel Park at 15:15 just to find the gates locked with a note on the gate ‘Closed/Gesluit’,” said Joubert.
He said it would have been better if he found a sign saying ‘Full’ instead of ‘closed’ so early. He then drove to the dumpsite in Mountain View and found the gates closed at 15:25.
He said someone from inside made a hand signal indicating the dump was full.
“I drove to the other side of the site and found someone there and I told the person that I could only dump my garden refuse on Saturdays or else I would dump it on the pavement,” Joubert said.
“The man said I could go ahead and dump my garden refuse there.”
Joubert said as he was about to dump the last two bags, two men walked up to him to tell him he could not dump outside the site.
Another resident backed up Joubert’s story.
Simon Northling said he had been turned away at the Phillip Nel Park dumpsite a couple of times.
“The workers are contradicting the working hours [displayed] on the gate because they knock off early,” he said.
“If the workers do not want to work until 17:45, then they should tell their bosses and have the operating hours changed so that we also know when they would be working,” said Northling.
Both men have sent emails to the Tshwane metro to complain about the dumpsites closing early but nothing has been done to assist them.
Rekord has also sent an enquiry to Tshwane metro.
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