BCM gets cracking to spruce up hotspot areas on Fridays

Every Friday, Buffalo City Metro employees will roll up their sleeves and clean “hotspot areas”.

With hashtags #MakingServiceDeliveryFashionable and #ACityHardAtWork, the cleanup started on Friday morning in Mdantsane, King William’s Town and Nompumelelo township in Beacon Bay.

The municipality announced it would embark on a cleanup campaign targeting hotspots “being cleaned to perfection”.

BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said the city acknowledged it had a refuse collection problem. “The strike action [in November and December] made the situation worse and we had to employ extra temporary measures to make up for that backlog.

“Now that we have, we are on a massive drive to cleanup the city.

“Over and above the normal day-to-day operations, we have dedicated Fridays for cleanup campaigns,” he said.

“This is to assist our turnaround plan that we have put in place . . . to ensure waste management is strengthened.”

He said in some areas, such as Southernwood, residents contributed to the problem by not adhering to collection dates and putting out the litter “at any given moment”.

Human settlements portfolio committee political boss Ntombizandile Mhlola said President Cyril Ramaphosa would visit the metro in March to officially launch the national cleanup campaign.

The committee addressed pupils and residents at Sakhikamva High School in Nompumelelo Township on Friday.

Mhlola said educating pupils about recycling would also alleviate illegal dumping.

“Cleanliness has to start at schools, so that kids can take this home and know what to do with litter. Recycling can assist us,” Mhlola said.