Dumpsite affecting Centurion business

An informal dumping site along Rabie Street in Die Hoewes is affecting business, while informal traders, waste pickers, and illegal dumpers are using the area.

Residents who use the busy road have seen the dumping site grow over several years.

Stephan Swanepoel from Cosmos Café in Rabie Street said the ongoing struggle with the dumping site next to his business has been a constant source of stress.

“In the last two or three years, it has spiralled completely out of control,” he told Rekord.

Swanepoel has been at the premises for over six years and said the site has been a constant source of headaches.

“We used to be able to walk around to the back of the property easily. Now all this rubble is in the way.”

He said the site became worse when teams arrived to dig a large trench behind the property, which borders the N14 freeway.

After the trench was dug, dumping at the site began to get worse, with the metro dumping tar and rubble from road and building sites.

“After they dumped the tar, that’s when it began building up beyond control,” Swanepoel said.

“Now we can’t even use our back entrance anymore. We used to use it after hours to access the property, but we can’t get our cars in anymore, and it is not safe because the dumping site hides property from the road,” he said.

“We have had many municipal trucks coming in and dumping here. Then we had others that see the site and come to dump building rubble, garden rubble, and even normal rubbish.”

Over time, some small structures have been built where people live on the site.

Swanepoel said petty crime has become a constant worry for his business.

“We had an incident where a woman was getting attacked there during the day. She managed to get away, but this is worrying for our customers.”

He said they went to cut down the trees and remove anything that could be used to climb the wall because the rubble hides the property from the public’s view.

The premises have been broken into several times with items such as cables, gas bottles and lights being stolen regularly.

“If this carries on, we are going to get to a point where it just won’t be safe here.

“When we raise this issue, we are usually told that ‘it has been escalated’, so we are at the point where we have kind of given up on it.

“Unless we get someone willing to help, this is never going to get better.”

Following several incidents, Swanepoel said they got additional car guards to protect the area and increased some security measures.

Despite this, he said customers often complain they do not feel safe.

“We have had some tractors come out here and they pushed the rubble back to form a wall, but it does not help.”

Swanepoel said shortly after this was last done, informal waste pickers quickly flattened a part of it to make an access hole to the other side of the wall.

Ward councillor David Farquharson said the land belonged to the metro, and was being used by the Roads and Transport Department.

He said he was working on the issue with the various departments involved at the site.

Farquharson said the TMPD would be policing illegal traders and illegal dumpers who were taking advantage of the site and creating a larger problem.

“We are hoping to see the informal traders licensed or stopped from working soon,” said Farquharson.

“But it is a long, complicated issue with many departments having to work together.”

MMC for Environment and Agriculture Management, Ziyanda Zwane, recently said the metro is committed to providing quality waste management services to keep the city clean.

He said his department plays a crucial role in efficient waste management services, protecting natural resources and tackling illegal dumping.

“To carry out its mandate, the department has been allocated R 2.079-billion for the 2024/25 financial year to address waste issues and ensure that our environment is clean and healthy,” said Zwane.

He said illegal dumping remained a significant concern.

“[It] continues to cost us money that should be going into improving service delivery.

“To address this matter, approximately R30-million has been designated for the implementation of relevant initiatives and enforcement measures against illegal dumping,” Zwane said.

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