Residents fed up with illegal dumpers in Bronkhorstspruit

The brazen disregard for law and order in Bronkhorstspruit has those who care about a clean town fuming. Vasti Mills leads the Bronkies Team Up to Clean Up crew and is frustrated with people who do not respect their neighbourhoods.

“We have a serious problem on the corner of Prinsloo and Angle streets, with photos and video footage of an individual who routinely empties wheelie bins there. The metro has to act.

“Behind the hospital, it is a dumping ground for everything, from garden rubbish to full carcasses and bones of large animals. It is disgusting how some garden services are guilty of dumping in this area,” said Mills.

This area is the next big project for the crew, and they plan to take on illegal dumpers here. To beautify the town, Mills and her team also plant aloes and other succulents in areas cleaned of rubbish or previously trampled by trucks.

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“This is actually a recycling project of sorts. We use the sand we remove from roads as the soil for planting the vegetation in used tyres.

“These are placed in the strategic spots to deter truck drivers. The plants multiply easily, and the idea is to change ugly illegal dumping spots into pretty landscaped areas.”

The inevitable is happening, though. People steal the plants or pilfer the used tyres.

“I have branded tyres for easy identification. Recently, I followed a man who stole tyres. He was rolling them through town to the taxi rank, where he planned to sell them as retread tyres. He apologised when I confronted him, but it did not deter him,” Mills told the Streeknews.

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The Team Up to Clean Up crew has put up seven “No dumping” signs and has noticed a positive change.

“It is at only two of these sites that the boards are disregarded,” Mills explained.

Mills pleads with metro police to act against the regular – and known – culprits.

“They have zoomed in on culprits in Zithobeni, but we hope they will also fine those who illegally dump their rubbish in town.”

The metro police caught an illegal dumper in Zithobeni last week, confiscating the man’s wheelbarrows and fining him.