Residents of Soshanguve extension 7 Ward 90 have been complaining about illegal dumping sites in their ward.
The community complained that the municipality takes time to clean up in the area and often when they pick up the garbage on Mondays they do not take everything. There are people chopping down trees and cutting grass in their houses, there is no truck that deals with managing that. This results in people creating dumping site everywhere which becomes a problem for residents.
Local ward councillor for Ward 90, Mr Enoch Chiloane, explained that the residents are to blame for being irresponsible when it comes to illegal dumping.
“Remember that these illegal dumping sites are created by hawkers, they are the ones who are there early and also late in the evening and when they are done selling they throw their garbage in open spaces.
“It is true that the municipality takes time to collect the garbage but also, the people end up dumping illegally because the municipality collects garbage every Monday. However, some community members fail to put their garbage inside black bags,” said Mr Chiloane
“You cannot put stones inside a rubbish bin and expect the municipality to pick up your rubbish because it is not allowed.
“Now we are busy with private trucks cleaning up because the municipality is taking forever, that is implemented in block XX already,” said Mr Chiloane.
A local hawker Ms Grace Manzungu complained about the smell that is causing her to lose customers due to the bad smell that comes from the dumping site created by residents near her shop.
“My customers complain about the dirt here, people throw things like pampers and they stink. Although they still buy from my shop, they complain.
“I don’t even remember when was the last time I saw people from the municipality and I have even resorted to hiring a person to clean for me and I pay them from my pocket, “said Ms Manzungu.
Ms Kegomoditswe Mokete, a local resident is mostly concerned about the health of children as there are new viruses like the coronavirus, she fears that they might get infected.
“The dumping sites are closer to people selling food and that makes that food to be unhealthy and a high risk for diseases.
“I wish the municipality can build a park in the open spaces just to stop people from dumping at unauthorised places” said Ms Mokete
