Joe Slovo residents praised the efforts of the City of Cape Town after a clean-up campaign rolled out in the area.
The newly-elected ward councillor Anthony Benadie spent a few times in Joe Slovo, tackling illegal dumping in the area and educating the community on what resources were available.
There are more than 1 600 permanent solid waste workers, and more than 1 200 temporary workers on the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) engaged on a rotational basis each day of the week to assist with the campaign.
The City says there are focused education and awareness campaigns, weekly waste collection – both formal and informal areas, and provision of waste drop-off facilities.
Residents in Joe Slovo took to social media the tidiness of the streets after rolling out the campaign.
“However, it is clear that we need to adopt a new strategy to change the culture of littering and illegal dumping,” the City says in a statement to the media. “If we are to create a sense of civic pride, we need each and every one of you to help us keep our City neat and tidy”.
In addition to the R5 million allocated for the citywide campaign in the January Adjustment Budget, the City says they have various plans in place to curb littering and illegal dumping.
“More than 180 000 tonnes of waste is cleared annually from illegal dumping hotspots city-wide.”
Illegal dumping cost the City more than R300 million over the last year – money the City says could have been used on more valuable projects to uplift residents.
The cleansing teams are active seven days a week. We deploy resources in an equitable manner throughout the City based on demand. Balancing the needs of all communities is a challenge, but we work hard to maintain a good level of service provision,” the statement reads.
The City says they are enforcing stronger fines and penalties for illegal dumping. Call 0860 103 089 to report illegal dumping.
