While measures are being taken to curb the scourge of pollution in Bloemfontein, littering by informal traders, for instance, seems to be continuing unabated. Tons of waste can be seen piled up along the streets of the city daily.
The latest effort made was the launch of a cleaning and greening programme, also involving the separation of waste, on Friday. This is a pilot project in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality (MMM).
Makhotso Sotyu, deputy minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, launched the initiative on 17 November with Gregory Nthatisi, executive mayor of the metro.
The programme will be implemented in 14 prioritised municipalities across the nine provinces through the department’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) mass employment in-house model. About 2 000 participants were recruited in Mangaung.
Initiatives like these are aimed at combating environmental degradation, eliminating litter and illegal dumping.
The programme is aimed at encouraging residents to separate waste and foster a recycling culture. Through this project, scores of waste collectors stand to benefit, assisting in addressing the problem arising from waste management in Mangaung.
The problematic culture of waste disposal is deeply rooted in the city, with informal traders disposing of rotten food and carcasses of slaughtered animals openly and haphazardly along the streets of the Free State capital.
In 2020, Sotyu also presented skip containers to the metro as part of the environmental cleaning campaign. However, only one of these, in Charlotte Maxeke Street, remains.
