Resident accuses metro of enabling continued illegal dumping

An Equestria businessman says the metro has exacerbated the dumping problem in Equestria/Willow Brae rather than solve it.

André Hugo has been mailing the metro since before October 2023 about the dumping near and around his place of business in Libertas Street.

After a Rekord intervention, a Tshwane team came out in late February to clean up – or so Hugo thought.

Hugo said the clean-up just proved his point.

He said all that the team did was sweep the street, pushed the waste to the side with a tractor and then left without removing it.

Hugo said this means the metro is condoning the action of illegal dumping.

“I finally got some reaction from the metro. They came and cleaned about 5% of the problem area. I guess I should be thankful that at least the area directly in front of my business has been cleared.”

He said he waited a couple of weeks in hope to see if they would come back.

“But no such luck – the area still looks like a dump yard, especially since the metro has been here to clean up,” said a furious Hugo.

“I am not into waste management. I am not into metro management. But even I can tell that this is like trying to put a plaster on an amputated limb.

“I have a message for the metro: All you are doing is clearing the area for the next guy to dump. If it does not get cleaned properly, people will keep on dumping. Moving it aside will not and does not solve the problem.”

He said this was exactly what he meant when he said that it seems the metro condones the dumping taking place.

“Either there is no control over the cleaning teams to ensure that they have done what was supposed to be done, or the metro just couldn’t be bothered to do a proper job,” said Hugo.

He once again reported the dumping, as well as this unsuccessful clean-up to the metro, and included mayor Cilliers Brink and local councillor Ben Chapman as addressees.

Currently the heaps are once again spilling over onto the road, said Hugo.

“Pedestrians have to endanger their lives. Still, no reply from city management, no acknowledgement of receipt, not even a measly empty promise like before.

“I am just totally being ignored. It is really horrible service from metro,” said Hugo.

He feels that Brink and city manager Johann Mettler are full of promises, and like to send out all kinds of media statements on all the projects they are planning and implementing, while existing departments get neglected.

“Existing duties that they were appointed to manage get ignored and all their attention goes to ‘new and improved’ projects,” said Hugo.

This saddens him.

“I really thought that Brink’s attitude would be different. It seemed as if he would actually endeavour to make a difference. I thought he would put a team together to get the metro back on track. It seems he ended up being only concerned with his own agenda,” said Hugo.

Chapman said that on various occasions he had escalated the problem to different departments, as well as responsible law enforcement agencies like the metro police.

He said the road had been cleaned numerous times in the past to keep it accessible and this has taken lots of resources and money.

“It remains a huge problem. I don’t condone dumping and I don’t think the council does either. Dumping revolts me and I would like to solve the problem as much as the residents would,” said Chapman.

He has sent video footage and photographs of the problem to his regional head and brought the relevant departments and metro management to the site to show them the problem.

“I know this sounds like excuses but there seems to be no sustainable solution from their side,” said Chapman.

He recommended various solutions.

“We can close the road but that is also not a sustainable solution. We can also put up bollards but that is no solution as the big trucks just dump over them,” said Chapman.

“Putting a palisade fence up might help and local business owners would have to contribute to that.

“Law enforcement is not a sustainable solution either.”

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He said part of the problem is that a witness of the illegal dumping must also be prepared to sign an affidavit to the effect at the police station and give evidence in court.

“Very few people have been prepared to do that and the legal process can thus not take its course. The prosecution rate is low. Zero happens,” said Chapman.

He agreed with Hugo that the metro’s recent cleaning efforts have worsened the problem.

“Never mind how much we escalate this, it just continues and continues. The metro just scrapes the problem away like in this case. They take a grader and push the rubbish to the side. This is a job half done.”

The metro had yet to respond to a Rekord request for comment at the time of going to print.

ALSO READ: Illegal dumping a burning issue

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