For as long as she can remember, the house she grew up in and lived in for the past 40 years has been degraded by an illegal dumping site directly next to her house.
To make matters worse, Alicia Adams’s residence in Schauderville was almost engulfed by flames not too long ago, since a vagrant built a shack in the middle of the dumping site.
This shack, that is also adjacent to a substation, caught fire and burned to the ground when the owner allegedly fell asleep with a candle still lit inside the dwelling.
Adams and her neighbours then had to extinguish the fire themselves.
Adams, who has been living on the corner of Gumpet Street and Phyllis Street for the last 40 years, said that the dumping site has been a struggle for as long as she has lived there.
“It hasn’t been cleaned for the last few months. I can’t remember exactly when but the last clean-up was either in February or March this year,” Adams said.
She added that whenever the site was cleaned up, residents and even businesses dumped their rubbish again on the very same day.
“There was also a guy that just one day came and built an illegal shack on the site. We had been fighting with him for months. After his shack burnt down he just left all of his stuff there. Some of the rubble belongs to him and he just up and left. He didn’t rebuild the shack,” she explained.
Adams mentioned that she was moved to contact PE Express after reading an article published last month about a new playground for Ward 11.
“I was reading the article on the front page about a safe space to play. In my area there is no place for the kids to play. I am very frustrated about this illegal dumping. The space can be converted into a play area for the children or a recycling protect can be done. There are a lot of unemployed people that can benefit from such a project.”
According to Adams, there are also safety concerns as alleged drug users sit close to the substation that has no fence.
“It’s unsafe here because they sit there and smoke and do all sorts of things, so the municipality needs to erect a fence. We’re struggling with this problem and it’s sad because the community doesn’t stand together. It is only the few of us that live in close proximity to the dumping site that care about this and what it looks like,” she said.
“You can’t even sit outside because you have this ugly view. We have reported it numerous times but no luck. It looks horrible and it is not right that we are forced to live like pigs.”
Municipal spokesperson, Mthubanzi Mniki, said that the municipality has been experiencing challenges with SMMEs in the area that have allegedly been refusing access to municipal staff and appointed services providers designated to clean the area.
“We are currently interacting with the ward councillor to seek solutions to the problem. More options are being explored as a temporary measure.”
