NHL sewage stinker
THE streets of Hluhluwe town are awash with sewage, a potential health catastrophe, as residents take on the municipality's latest revenue generating measure.
With no water-borne sewerage system in place, Hluhluwe residents have for a number of years relied on the services of a local company and its 'honey sucker' to empty septic tanks and dump the waste at the appropriate municipal site.
That all came to an end last Monday when Alpha Cleaning Services was stopped at the gate to the municipal waste dump site and told to pay more than R500 per load from then on.
“There was no notice or any communication from either Hluhluwe or the district municipality. I did my homework and contacted Sanitec in Richards Bay. They are paying 0.02 cents per litre and that seems fair,” said company owner Pierre Conradie, adding that his company has, with immediate effect, stopped supplying this service ‘until further notice’.
Conradie's company provides the service of pumping sewerage tanks at a cost of R350 per load, and has until now dumped it at the municipal site free of charge.
He said it came as a surprise when his truck driver was informed of the R525.40 dumping fee per load.
However, uMkhanyakude District Municipality’s communications manager, Philani Khumalo said this cost has always been in place, and ensuring it is imposed forms part of the municipality’s greater drive to enhance revenue collection.
Conradie said his company is providing this ‘more as a service to the community and to ensure raw sewage is not running down the streets like in other towns’, rather than a profitmaking business.
He said, with the R525.40 charge, this would mean his company has to hike what it charges its clients.
Khumalo said, following a council resolution to determinedly enforce by-laws and re-strategise on how to improve revenue collection, it has been stated that the services provided by the district municipality should be paid for by affording residents.
Khumalo explained that free services or the rebate of services is provided to indigent households, including pensioners.
He said the installation of water meters was also in the pipeline so the municipality can ensure residents also pay for this service.
“It is legal, there is nothing wrong with the money paid at the Hluhluwe sewage dumpsite,” said Khumalo, who encouraged residents of Hluhluwe township, as well as KwaMsane in Mtubatuba and other areas, to approach the district municipality to gain access to such a service, as well as that of water supply at cheaper rates compared with private entities.
Municipal meeting called
After receiving several complaints, Big 5 Hlabisa Municipality scheduled a Friday meeting with the Hluhluwe Ratepayers' Association to discuss the ‘serious spillage of raw sewage all over’ the town.
The association’s chair, Waldo van Schalkwyk, said no representatives from the district municipality attended the meeting.
“It is more important to see the president than to sort out health issues within your district,” said Van Schalkwyk, referring to Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga’s oversight visit to Manguzi on Friday.
Van Schalkwyk said most businesses in Hluhluwe town relied on the services provided by Conradie for the draining of septic tanks.
He conceded that the payment at the municipal dumpsite has always been in place, but said the money was not really requested for dumping the sewage.
Van Schalkwyk echoed Conradie's sentiment, saying it was ‘ludicrous’ that without notice being given, the demand for payment at the municipal sewer dump was now being enforced.
He said he understood the dams at the dumpsite need to be maintained, but was of the view that the just over R500 price tag to dump a load was too costly.
Van Schalkwyk took issue with the process of first obtaining a permit from the district municipality before dumping sewage at the municipal site, in particular, because there are no district municipal offices in town.
“The permit process is totally silly. So now you have to wait for that permit process to go through at uMkhanyakude before you can dump,” said Van Schalkwyk.
The ratepayers' association is demanding the gates at the municipal dumpsite be immediately opened and that the district municipality avails itself for negotiations.
According to Van Schalkwyk, in the district municipality’s 2014/15 Integrated Development Plan, there was an item for the installation of a pipeline from a local hotel straight to the municipal dumpsite, which would have assisted the other major businesses in the area.
Attempts to contact Khumalo regarding this pipeline were unsuccessful at the time of going to print.
Hluhluwe streets flow with raw sewage after municipal procedural change