[Speech]: The City of Ekurhuleni heading towards another Waste Crisis
by Cllr. Tiaan Kotze — DA Spokesperson for Waste Management and Environmental Resource Development in Ekurhuleni
Date: 26 January 2024
Release: Immediate
Type: Media Statement
Note to Editors: The following statement is a speech that was delivered by DA Councillor in Ekurhuleni, Cllr.Tiaan Kotze, in response to the Executive Mayor’s Speech during the Ordinary Council Meeting, held on 25 January 2024.
Good Morning Madam Speaker,
Honourable Executive Mayor, who would have thought that “The Peoples Government” would have this many protests and that crisis management would be necessary in your tenure? If silence is how we deal with a crisis, then this coalition is doing exceedingly well. Since taking office, there have been numerous complaints about the lack of feedback on service delivery matters. Are officials again being gagged from communicating with councillors as nothing has been forthcoming on our end?
A basic municipal competence: waste management, grass cutting, tree pruning, and cemetery management seems to be too much for the deployed EFF MMCs to this portfolio.
Daveyton, Etwatwa, KwaThema, Duduza, Tsakane, and Langaville have had waste pilling in their streets for over two weeks again in November after the same waste collection contractors downed tools in October due to non-payment. In this City, in which your finance MMC claims there’s no financial crisis, we’ve seen more contractual issues than ever before. Our internal Waste fleet was supposed to be brought up to capacity while the city utilised the waste collection contractors, this has not been done. We will be heading to yet another city-wide waste crisis very soon due to non-payment and a couldn’t-care-less coalition who would rather stuff their pockets than improve service delivery.
Landfill contractors are regularly not being paid, whereas your MMC claims in an oversight committee meeting that payments are being processed and are getting up to date. No wonder the landfill sites are always catching fire, no contractor can work effectively and under stringent contracts and legal prescripts without being paid for their essential service.
Still, the City does not have all 5 of its landfill sites running at full capacity. Again, promises were made by your MMC in front of a full oversight committee. Yet we see a city with over 4 million residents producing recyclable and non-recyclable waste daily with private waste removal companies despairing at the cost of fuel it takes to drive waste across vast distances. Companies will close down Mr Mayor if we continue down this trajectory. We warned in our motion regarding the Zama-Zama situation that we are currently faced with. The City’s staff members operate in fear at the Simmer & Jack landfill site, while armed men have taken over the site. This is not normal!
Illegal dumping is rife in this city mainly due to the landfill closures; we have seen a wetland buried by an illegal landfill site in Elandsfontein, Germiston. This has flooded the neighbouring Sizwe Secondary School and left pupils struggling to access their classes between sewer rivers and long grass. The frequent closure of transfer stations and mini dump sites has led desperate residents to illegally dump outside the premises with no reasons given for the closures or reopening.
During the Summer peak holiday season in December, residents had to either cut the municipal parks and open spaces themselves or it would have remained unusable for the season. The City’s depots are not equipped with adequate PPE and equipment for staff to do what the ratepayers are paying for. The parks depots and the City’s Ward & PR Councillors were left inundated with complaints from desperate residents needing assistance with grass cutting, tree pruning, and landscaping. The EFF are running the Waste and Parks Department into a state of ruin.
This very December, one of the City’s Parks in Bedfordview, which I remind this Council is in the process of being remade and designated as the City’s first Botanical Garden, was used by a political party for an event.This event was in contravention with the SASREA Act (Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act 2 of 2010) a National Law prescript. Various criteria were not met to host this event, yet the Parks Department officials could not answer queries for weeks while questions were being raised around the event. Payments were allegedly not made to EMPD, the Waste Department, and Real Estate, in a city that cannot afford not being paid for services. The Waste Department had to spend 3 days cleaning after this event. Did members of your Executive place pressure on the administration to recoup funds after the event?
Municipal trees are falling over onto vehicles, buildings, and public roads, with the department not having the chain oil in stock to run a chainsaw to clear them, never mind, pruning the trees away from power lines and out of roadways.
Many families planned and wanted to visit their relatives and ancestors at the City’s 70 cemeteries this December period and were sadly lucky if they could find their gravesites or tombstones, which are either overgrown in grass, vandalised, or stolen.
We call on your administration to capacitate the City’s personnel. Show them that they matter, and the work will get done, Mr Mayor. Get the basics right, like ensuring adequate equipment and PPE, and pay our contractors as we cannot waste any time fending off another crisis.
I thank you.
Cllr. Tiaan Kotze
DA Spokesperson for Waste Management and Environmental Resource Development in Ekurhuleni
079 893 8404