Durban — Members of the Westville community in Durban took a stand against poor service delivery and began cleaning up their community, ahead of the eThekwini Municipality’s service delivery recovery plan update meeting on Wednesday (today).
Led by the eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement (ERPM) and the Westville Ratepayers Association (WRA), the clean-up aims to tackle the waste collection issue caused by the strike by employees affiliated with the South African Municipal Workers’ (Samwu). The workers downed tools on February 27.
Deputy chairperson of WRA & ERPM, Rose Cortes, said the WRA addressed the community on Sunday regarding cleaning up the area.
“The most frustrating part is that we had to be covert about it due to threats. We have the metro police escorting us with garbage. We also have private security companies assisting. There is about two weeks’ worth of trash since the beginning of the strike, just dumped everywhere.
“Between the ERPM and WRA, the community response has been generous. I am grateful for them helping us out.”
Cortes said local private companies provided trucks to assist. Without their generosity, they wouldn’t be able to execute what they have executed thus far. She said that under normal circumstances, Westville runs on a 5-day collection schedule and every day has been missed due to the strike.
“We have established collective points to try to assist. It’s not the mandate of the WRA to do this. We are learning as we go, but the community's response has been great. The City needs to come to the party and clear the air as we can’t continue like this,” she said.
She also touched on the water issues and said they have also gone on for more than eight days.
WRA chairperson Asad Gaffar said, “There’s a crisis and the community has come together. The City doesn’t understand that the waste needs to be moved. City-wide, people are just dumping trash everywhere.
“Another issue is that a lot of ‘fly-by-night’ opportunists are charging people for bags – between R10 and R100 – and they aren’t even disposing of the trash. It would seem as though they are providing a service, but they take the money and then just dump it around the corner, in an open space.”
Westville resident Warren Manning said he is worried that both parties in this labour dispute aren’t doing their best to resolve the matter.
“We are going to reach a point where it will cost billions to repair the city.
“Both sides need to come together or we will lose our city. I appeal to both sides to show leadership, and at least pave a plan going forward, or else Durban will be gone.”
Manning said that the city has not recovered from the looting or flooding, and that “Durban can’t be a city that experiences disasters bi-annually”.
eThekwini spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said waste collection services were disrupted due to the strike action.
“This has affected the Cleansing and Solid Waste Unit’s refuse collection and street sweeping services.”
Residents were requested not to take out their refuse until further notice, she said. Garden refuse sites were also temporarily closed. Residents were urged to keep their garden refuse within their properties.
“We apologise for the inconvenience caused, especially to affected businesses and residents. We are appealing for patience during this time. The City remains committed to engaging with aggrieved employees, through their union representatives and the recognised labour structures, in order to bring an end to the unlawful strike.”
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