Rubbish dumped all over Uitenhage after strike
THE Bay’s garden town is slowly trading trees for trash as Uitenhage’s outlying streets are used as illegal dumping sites following the recent municipal refuse workers’ strike.
The week-long strike, which ended on Monday, resulted in a major backlog of refuse and scores of Uitenhage residents opting to dump their rubbish along streets leading out of the town.
The streets – Dower Avenue, Verwoerd Drive, McCarthy, Cyprus and Acacia streets – are all sites where illegal dumps were cleaned in previous months as part of the municipality’s War on Waste programme.
Visiting the dump sites yesterday, a Herald team noted two municipal refuse trucks and about 20 workers cleaning a site in McCarthy Street.
Less than a kilometre away in Dower Avenue, two residents were seen dumping roller bin contents along the road, where refuse had been collected.
Resident Jaydan Redcliffe said: “We can’t keep rubbish in our yards and have our children getting sick because the municipality didn’t do what they are supposed to.
“Who knows how much longer it will take – they are playing catch-up now.”
Acacia Street resident Glenwell Minnie said: “People are dumping on the same places which were just cleaned.
“I reported the dumping, but was told nothing could be done last week because of the strike.”
The town’s more affluent suburbs were also not immune to illegal dumping and black bags could be seen piled up in grassy areas.
Pavements were also dotted with waste in the tree-lined suburbs.
On Monday, Nelson Mandela Bay mayoral spokesman Sibongile Dimbaza said workers were back at work and “picking up where they left off”.
But he warned that due to backlogs the situation would not be normalised immediately.
The workers struck over “long hours without overtime pay and unpalatable working conditions”.
The municipality failed to respond to questions yesterday about when the situation would be back to normal.
During the launch of the R15-million War on Waste in March, mayor Athol Trollip warned that the city would implement its bylaws, including fines of up to R1 000 and the impounding of vehicles used to dump waste illegally.