Ekurhuleni Waste Crisis: Residents of Chief Albert Luthuli let down by lack of refuse collection
Statement by Cllr. Khathutshelo Rasilingwane — DA Shadow MMC for Health & Social Development in Ekurhuleni
Date: 20 October 2021
Release: Immediate
Type: Media statement
Residents of Chief Albert Luthuli, Phase 4, in the City of Ekurhuleni, are living in filth after the ANC-led Metro has failed to conduct weekly refuse removal from their RDP houses.
These residents, who were allocated the houses in 2019, do not receive adequate services from the Metro, who complain that the lack of refuse removal has led to a dramatic increase in illegal dumping in the community. As a result, residents complain of an unsanitary environment accompanied by mounting health hazards.
Chief Albert Luthuli, is not the only community in Ekurhuleni to be denied their basic rights to service delivery, with countless failures by the Metro to ensure basic and consistent waste collection becoming common.
The Department of Environmental Resource and Waste Management Services, under the leadership of ANC-appointed MMC Makhosazana Mabaso, and HOD, Faith Wotshela, have rendered the Department completely dysfunctional, and in the process let down residents by failing to deliver even the most basic of services.
Contributing to the problem has been the Departments mismanagement of contactors at many of the City’s landfill sites, leading to a number of them being closed to the public. This lack of access creates massive backlogs in waste collection, ultimately felt by our communities who go for weeks without collection while their waste builds up creating increasingly unhealthy living conditions.
In January 2021, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ekurhuleni launched a motion of no confidence in Ald. Mabaso. The motion, however, was declined in Council after Mabaso was protected by the ANC and their coalition partners*. Service delivery has continued to decline under their leadership to the detriment of our communities, most notably the residents of Chief Albert Luthuli.
The DA will continue to fight for adequate services for our communities. It is unfathomable that after 27-years of democracy residents still do not have adequate services under the ANC-led coalition government in Ekurhuleni.
#Time4Change
*Coalition Partners: African Independent Congress (AIC), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Patriotic Alliance (PA) and Independent Ratepayers Association of South Africa (IRASA)
Cllr. Khathutshelo Rasilingwane
DA Shadow MMC for Health & Social Development in Ekurhuleni
