The civil rights watchdog AfriForum’s legal team sent a letter of demand regarding the cancellation of refuse removal for 700 citizens to the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality on Monday.
This follows the municipality’s continued poor management refuse removal and a letter delivered to the office of the City Manager on 23 November 2023.
AfriForum encouraged members last year to submit an application for the cancellation of the metro’s refuse removal service so that they could make use of private service providers instead.
Around 700 people submitted this application, but the municipality rejected the applications.
In her response to the letter, the then Acting City Manager Maureen Ntshudisane, said the municipality could not consider the applications because of a similar matter pending in the Bloemfontein High Court.
According to Christo Groenewald, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for Bloemfontein, AfriForum is now forced to take further legal steps. They now gave the metro until 5 February to provide valid reasons for the refusal of members’ cancellation applications; otherwise, AfriForum will turn to the court.
“We have no other choice but to take legal steps against the Mangaung Metro,” Groenewald said. “Residents have the right to apply for the cancellation of their municipal refuse collection and have this service removed from their municipal account. Many residents are now tired of bearing double costs just to have their refuse removed promptly and to ensure that their neighbourhood does not turn into a rubbish dump”.
According to Groenewald, refuse is only sporadically removed in Bloemfontein, and this, he believes, not only poses an environmental risk but also creates opportunities for so-called bag diggers and animals to tear open the refuse bags and thus spread litter further. It also poses a potential risk for residents in terms of crime.
“We believe that this waste management crisis requires urgent attention and that the metro’s failure to act is unacceptable,” said Petrus Coetzee, AfriForum’s Advisor for local government affairs. “In the event of an unsatisfactory answer by 5 February, we are prepared to take legal action in terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act. Residents and taxpayers of the Mangaung Metro should be able to choose which services they want to use and deserve a quick and efficient solution to the challenges they are currently experiencing.”
Since August 2023, AfriForum has assisted the community in submitting their applications for cancellation. Despite the several letters that AfriForum has already handed over to the Mangaung Metro regarding this matter, no feedback has been received so far.
“We encourage the Bloemfontein community to submit their applications for cancellation and, with our sights on a cleaner and safer Bloemfontein, to join AfriForum’s refuse disposal initiative,” concludes Groenewald.
BloemNews asked feedback from the communications office of the Mangaung Metro, and have not yet received any feedback on the matter.
