Residents in Protea South, Johannesburg lament over illegal dumping happening in the area. This complaint comes after one old man was caught dumping rubbish with a VW bakkie within the community residential area. Community members says that ongoing illegal dumping poses health risks.
They blame waste management Pikitup, saying it is not providing services as expected. Protea south resident, Tshidiso Mothibi who reside at Surrey street told Gauteng News that the law must charge hefty fines to eradicate illegal dumping. He said that the health of the members of the community is at stake due to illegal dumping.
“Our health is at risk because of illegal dumping so the law must charge those who randomly dump their rubbish with heavy fines. I caught an old man dumping who wanted to dump rubbish, I went to him and confronted him,”
“I explained to him that am staying around that dumping place and when the wind comes it blows everything to my yard. Every time I have to clean that rubbish. I then called my councillor so we took photos so that he can take this matter further.” Mothibi said
The councillor of the ward 10, Joseph Matjila said that they are having a problem from both members of the community and Pikitup.
“Our problem is not only from Pickitup or from the community, both parties must work collaboratively to solve this issue. Most of the time, Pikitup come up and clean up the illegal dumping sites to rehabilitate that land where they were dumping,” Matjila said.
He added and said that community members are dumping illegal because some of them are not receiving plastics.
“We are having issues with the distributions of plastics in the area, because I’ve been receiving complains around the issues of plastics distributions. Most of the community members are saying they are not receiving enough plastics and sometimes they don’t receive them at all. That one on its own causes problem,” he said.
He concluded and said that he once attempted to report to the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) about illegal dumping with no success.
“I’ve spoken with Pickitup several times, I’ve escalated the matter to say the community is complaining about plastics. From their site they claim that they are providing the plastics according to their standard. Now we are having the issue with JMPD you can call them and we don’t get assisted.” He concludes.
