‘Losing battle’: Tshwane metro finds it difficult to enforce City by-laws
Asked if the metro was failing to enforce by-laws, Johnston said he wouldn’t call the programme a failure.
The Tshwane metro is having difficulty enforcing its illegal dumping and illegal traders by-laws in what it describes as a losing battle.
“We remove the illegal traders [and litter] one day, but the next day they are back at the same spot again.”
This was according to metro spokesperson Sipho Stuurman.
Stuurman made the comments during a recent Operation Tswelopele clean-up in Centurion.
“The reality is that we don’t have enough manpower to keep up with this or monitor the situation,” Stuurman said.
He said the metro, however, remained determined to enforce the law.
“We promise that not a day will go by where we fail in our duties to enforce the by-laws, many of which come with hefty fines.”
Tshwane MMC for utility services Daryl Johnston said the municipality has identified 672 hotspots for illegal trading and dumping but did not elaborate on the exact spots.
“We are also tackling drug dens in order to run a drug-free metro.
“Part of the Tswelopele programme was to deal with illegal traders or vendors who were trading without proper documentation, which the metro will help them obtain.
“We are looking at formalising the street vendors or traders so that we can take them to a designated space. This forms part of a by-law that is already gone to the MMC and we are expected it to be finalised by the council at the end of January,” Johnston said.
Asked if the metro was failing to enforce by-laws, Johnston said he wouldn’t call the programme a failure.
“We would rather seek to change the behaviour of the residents when it came to by-laws and the danger of littering,” Johnston said.
“People have to understand the damage that they are doing within their communities, the environment and how it is impacting other areas, our water streams, sewerage and water treatment plants.
“It is critical that we communicate this and get residents to understand that at the end of the day we are just not running around chasing after people, and cleaning up all the time but teaching them to change their mindset about what to do with the garbage.”
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