Municipality makes empty promises

SECUNDA – The situation at Secunda Rubbish Dump has gotten worse since the Ridge Times reported about it last week.

Rubbish can be seen everywhere on both sides of the main road as the rubbish dump is inaccessible because the municipality did not maintain it or kept their agreement with the owner of the road leading to the rubbish dump, Mr André du Preez.

Mr Du Preez has been battling with the municipality for eight years about the state at the rubbish dump.

He has had meetings with municipal officials who promised things would change, but it never really did.

The Echo and Ridge Times have reported about the bad state at Secunda Rubbish Dump numerous times over the last couple of years.

There were problems with scavengers attacking people, illegal fires at the rubbish dump and insufficient fencing around the rubbish dump.

Officials from the municipality said it will be maintained when Interwaste takes over, but not much has changed.

According to a source the municipality apparently did not pay Inerwaste as they were supposed to and that is why Interwaste could not do all the work at the rubbish dump and that Interwaste will not renew their contract with the municipality.

The head of marketing and communications, Mr Henry Masango, finally commented on the situation but he did not answer all the questions of the Ridge Times.

The questions that the Ridge Times asked were:

1) What exactly has the municipality done in the last four years to improve the state of the rubbish dump?

2) What exactly did Interwaste do to improve the situation at the rubbish dump?

3) Did the municipality pay Interwaste on time every month and according to their contract?

4) Does the municipality owe Interwaste any money at the moment?

5) Is Interwaste going to renew their contract with the municipality in January?

6) If Interwaste does not renew their contract, how is the municipality going to fix this obviously growing problem?

7) How is the licence for the dumping site coming along?

8) Where should people dump their rubbish now since Evander Rubbish Dump is already closed and Secunda’s now as well?

Mr Masango’s response was: “During the past week the whole Govan Mbeki Municipal area has experienced extremely heavy rain fall, which not only led to flooding of the region, but has made the operations of the landfills within the area almost unmanageable.

“Only Kinross Rubbish Dump now has proper access.

“The rain has created within the Secunda landfill site a situation where access is not possible.

“All the internal roads were flooded, mud blocked the site and is full of waste.

“The service provider Interwaste has tried to open the internal road, but even their landfill compactor got stuck.

“In general, the Secunda landfill site experiences a high volume of daily traffic into the site from business and the community intending to dispose of waste.

“With the wet conditions, the daily traffic did not stop, with the result that people began dumping their rubbish from the gate at the landfill site up to Ratau Recycling, creating a serious condition along the road.

“Interwaste only managed to secure additional landfill machinery from Gauteng this week to help with the crisis.

“Interwaste’s plan of action is first to ensure access into the site and they will continue over the weekend until access is possible to the workface.

“Along the access road from Ratau Recycling to the gate, a front-end loader is piling waste, which will eventually be loaded and transported into the site once access is possible.

“In terms of my own evaluation, it will only take place by next week or when the site operations and access has improved.

“The section of solid waste management has stopped all its refuse trucks to dispose at the Secunda site and redirected them to the Kinross landfill until further notice.

“Only the community is now dumping next to the access road.

“Once the site has dried off, the whole area will be cleaned and rehabilitated.”

The municipality began making a road and clearing things up at the rubbish dump and residents can now dump their rubbish at Kinross Rubbish Dump.

In the meantime, scavengers are now making fires next to the main road and are sitting there waiting for waste to come in.