Pretoria - The City of Tshwane wants to step up its clean-up campaign called Re Kaofela (working together) through collaborative efforts with various stakeholders, including ward councillors, by targeting illegal dumping sites in townships.
The campaign is running parallel to the EEF’s recently launched clean-up initiative named after the late activist Andries Tatane, who was gunned down by police officers in 2011 during a service delivery protest in Ficksburg in the Free State.
While advocates of both clean-up campaigns were working to achieve the same goal, they have expressed reluctance to work together.
Recently, EFF’s councillor Benjamin Mathevula tried in vain to invite the MMC for Environment and Agriculture Management, Ziyanda Zwane, to join hands with his party councillors in their next clean-up campaign.
“We have started a cleaning campaign upon ourselves, without the involvement of the City. We are running a campaign called Andries Tatane cleaning campaign. The MMC can come and join us and assist us in cleaning the city,” he said.
Zwane, instead, extended a similar invite to the EFF to take part in the City’s cleaning project.
He said the City would be embarking on the Re Kaofela campaign in townships to keep the environment clean.
“The City will continue with its Re Kaofela campaign in different townships of the regions of Tshwane. What we intend to achieve with this waste management campaign is to bring together political leaders, stakeholders and communities across Tshwane with information related to bin applications and distribution,” he said.
The intention was to clear illegal dumping hot spots and facilitate the adoption of public spots, he said.
“The City wants to highlight environmental education and awareness. Residents are invited to join our efforts to keep our communities clean,” Zwane said.
Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink said the City was forced to clear tons of waste from illegal dumping sites every year, costing millions of rand in resource mobilisation. “These are funds that could be redirected to essential basic services,” he said.
The City was gradually running out of landfill space as new licences were not being issued by the national government, he warned.
“This we will have to engage on through an intergovernmental process because we must secure additional landfill space. However, we will also look at all available options that can drive recycling and use modern infrastructure like waste-to-energy installations to reduce our waste footprint. We will also engage on our waste management service delivery model and the high level of dependency that we have on contractors,” Brink said.
Illegal dumping continues to be a thorn in the City’s side despite its previous warnings that it was pushing to enforce by-laws that would ensure heavy fines were imposed on transgressors.
Last month, the City announced the closure of two of its nine garden refuse sites as part of plans to improve operations and management.
Both the Kruger Avenue and the Waltloo Garden refuse sites were closed until May 21 to allow the City to clear the backlog at the sites.
Pretoria News