Lekwa’s landfill site overflows with rubbish

The DA is appalled at the state it has found parts of town, Sakhile and the landfill site.

According to their councillor, Sithi Silosini, it indicates a department collapsing under the leadership of MMC Seipati Modise.

Silosini said the MMC needs to have an aggressive turnaround strategy.

She also said the DA will be submitting a motion to ring-fence all money paid towards refuse removal to the Department of Community Services and Safety to prioritise buying refuse removal trucks and equipment to ensure the community gets the services they pay for and are constitutionally due.

The Standerton Advertiser gave front-page coverage to the landfill site last year, also focusing on our neighbouring town, Morgenzon.

As reported, their landfill site closed down and all household waste collected was to be transported to the Standerton landfill site.

Cost-wise a figure for the closure was estimated at R5.8m and an amount of R4.9m was budgeted to establish a transfer station in Morgenzon.

The cost of a new landfill site was estimated at R7.8m.

The Gert Sibande District Municipality was requested to intervene and ensure that it became part of the 2017/18 IDP budget.

These figures date back to some years ago.

Workers at the landfill site could not confirm last year on which days the Morgenzon rubbish was dumped.

Lekwa’s refuse trucks have to travel 50.2km via the R39 and back to dump refuse at the dumping site on Secunda Road.

AfriForum sent information about their audit of 153 landfill sites across South Africa in the past as part of their national project to measure the quality of sites.

Only one out of 21 audited landfill sites in Mpumalanga complied with national standards.

AfriForum then said landfill sites must comply with specific requirements in terms of applicable legislation and regulations, including the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2008.

The audit was done from 2015 to 2021 and the percentages for Lekwa, as regards compliance, were respectively 24%, 32%, 25%, 14%, 0%, 18 % and 18%.

According to AfriForum, municipal deterioration was rampant and was noticeable that especially smaller municipalities were subject to large-scale mismanagement.

AfriForum audited 162 dumping sites in South Africa last year and not one of the 22 in Mpumalanga complied with national standards.

An email was sent on January 13 to the media liaison officer of AfriForum, Ischke van Eeden, for comment on the current situation.

The reply will be published when received since ample time was given for feedback.

The Standerton Advertiser had already sent a WhatsApp message on July 1 last year to Thando Nkosi from the communications department of the municipality, requesting comment about the new landfill site in Morgenzon that is not yet operational.

A message was sent on January 12 to Nkosi requesting comment on the conditions of the landfill site in town.
The query about Morgenzon’s site was reiterated as well.

The newspaper quoted Nkosi’s reply on refuse collection in our last edition on page 4 and legalities, as cited in the National Environmental Management: Waste Act and National Domestic Waste Collection Standards were published.

Words used included ‘as soon as practical’ and ‘prioritise’.

No response was forthcoming on whether ratepayers’ accounts will be adjusted accordingly.