Delft kids play in fields filled with rubbish
DELFT residents fear for the safety of their children as they often play in fields of household waste and rubble.
Community worker Randall Stemmet said after a month after moving into his home opposite an open field, he noticed that there was an infestation of mice.
“The rubbish was piled high on the field.
“I began to take photos of the company trucks and vans which were dumping rubble there, instead of taking it to the dumpsite.
“I take down the licence plate numbers and report the drivers to the Rosendal law enforcement who contact the branch at Khayelitsha.
“Now they keep the street clean near my home,” said Stemmet.
He said the council cleaned the verges bordering the fields about once a month now but within a few days the verges would fill up with rubble, up to a metre high. Companies paid truckers to take building site rubble to the dumpsites but they pocketed the cash instead and dumped their loads on open stretches of field.
“They use our fields to dump anything and everything.
“It is quite dangerous for the children to play there, they could be injured,” Stemmet said.
Grandmother Gail Petersen, who has been living in Delft for six years, said the “dumping was bad” and no matter how much she asked fellow residents who were carting dirt there in their wheelie bins, not to dump, “no one listened”.
“Our children have nowhere to play. It is dangerous for them.
“They can get injured in the dirt or by the men who sit in the bushes.
“People dump everything there, mattresses, old cupboards and some people have made vegetable gardens on the land or slaughter sheep there,” said Petersen.
Gamiedah Reading said she and her family suffered badly from sinus, ever since moving to Delft.
No matter how much insect spray she used, she could not get rid of the cockroach infestation that came up from the drains which residents were using as another dump site.
“It is not a nice place, to raise the children.
“There is no love in this place,” said Reading