Health hazards are looming in Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) due to growing rubbish dumps, as there are only 30 refuse trucks to serve the entire city.
The 30 operating trucks must serve more than 300 000 households in 60 city centres (excluding the informal settlements).
The filthy and horrible state of the metro prompted Eastern Cape Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, to call NMB Mayor, Mongameli Bobani, to hear from him why the city was so dirty.
Mabuyane also called Andile Lungisa, head of infrastructure and engineering, and Yolisa Pali, head of public health, to hear their perspectives.
Mabuyane found out that only 30 of the metro’s 60 refuse trucks are in working order.
The rest of the trucks had mechanical problems and were parked at the metro depot. Some of these trucks have been waiting to be serviced for some time now.
This revelation comes amid daily complaints by residents.
Illegal dumping sites are also increasing.
Lungisa said on inquiry that the municipality realised that 30 trucks were too few.
“This is now urgently being addressed.”
Lungisa said they had already set the ball rolling to get more refuse trucks and to have the broken trucks repaired.
“Some of the trucks that do not work are already very old. Others need to be serviced because it works 24 hours a day to keep the city clean,” he said.
“I assured the Premier that we will solve this problem.”
Municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki says a multimillion rand cleanup project to clean townships and northern suburbs began on August 1.
The project amounts to R120 million over three years – 41 cooperatives will each be appointed in specific areas. Of these, 25 have already started, Mniki says.
“The co-operatives are going to serve those areas that are not part of environments where garbage is picked up regularly,” he says.
Lance Grootboom of the ACDP, who is the former mayoral committee member for public health, says the situation is unacceptable, especially since the metro has eight external contractors on its books, whose trucks it can use.
He says there is a budget for the eight external contractors in case the metro’s trucks are broken or inoperative for some reason.
Grootboom thinks the dirty city is not because of trucks that do not work, but because of poor leadership. He puts the reason for the problems in front of Pali’s door.
Grootboom says the truck drivers are paid thousands of rands extra for overtime every month, but the city is still not tidy.
“While I was in charge, without the help of multimillion rand clean-up projects, we managed to clean the city and keep it clean.
“We have a big management problem here. There is also no political will to keep the city clean.”
Mayoral spokesperson, George Geleba, said that the city is currently working on supply chain processes for the procurement of new refuse trucks to clean the metro.
Geleba added, “The main challenge for now with our refuse trucks is breakdowns.
“However, normal weekly refuse collection and illegal dumping awareness continue. Supplementing to the challenge is the cooperatives project with the War on Waste project that is currently on the ground and the waste-to-energy project that is in the pipeline.”
