EMPANGENI shop owners, churchgoers and pedestrians say they are fed up with the town’s disgusting state of the streets.
This comes after residents and congregants of a nearby church complained of the deteriorating condition of Maxwell Street, which is littered with overflowing dustbins, fermenting fruit and decaying animal heads.
The area which accommodates retailers, banks and a church makes this street a high traffic zone and poses serious health risks to people frequenting the vicinity.
‘This is our town and it is an eyesore that it has to look this way,’ said Empangeni resident Jean Harborth.
‘The only way to control and ensure town cleanliness is to have regular and frequent inspections by municipal authorities. It is also important to have people cleaning our streets daily.’
Earlier this month residents also complained of medical waste dumped in Union Street which posed a hazard to children and pedestrians.
According to environmental health bylaws, ‘no person may create a public health hazard anywhere in the municipal area which consequently results in conditions on the premises which are conducive to the spread or cause of disease’.
Section 4 of this bylaw states that every owner or occupier of a premises must ensure that a public health hazard does not occur.
‘The municipality will have to investigate this matter because informal traders are not registered on the municipal data system. However, they are operating within trading space,’ said City Chief Communications Officer Vukile Mathabela.
‘We encourage traders to clean up after themselves and correctly dispose of their waste.
‘We have municipal cleaning and maintenance staff who ensure the streets of Empangeni are well looked after. They are on duty between 7am and 6pm and have skips strategically spaced to dispose of the waste they clean up.
‘Health inspections at restaurants and grocery retail outlets are done regularly with most of the inspections being unannounced. We are able to identify guilty parties and take relevant action by revoking their trading or hawker licenses,’ said Mathabela.
