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Port Elizabeth - The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has cleaned areas that news agency GroundUp previously identified as accumulating rubbish.
“Rubbish has been ruling the roost in this area for the past two months and it’s a relief that it has been cleared,” Motherwell NU8 resident Damara Kano said.
He called on the municipality to enforce dumping laws because people were throwing their rubbish everywhere. It had piled up in the streets to such an extent that he was forced to use a longer route to walk to the shops.
On 20 January, GroundUp reported that rubbish was accumulating in NU8 and the informal settlements of Powerline and Endlovini in Motherwell, Port Elizabeth.
GroundUp on Friday reported that the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality had since cleaned the area.
Municipality spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said: “We will be launching a programme towards the end of February to focus on illegal dumping. This programme will include awareness, cleaning of illegal dumping sites and giving fines to those who are caught dumping illegally.”
Long-time resident of Powerline, Akhona (surname withheld), lives alongside one of the dumps. She said she was excited that there was no more rubbish around the shacks in her area.
“We feel safe now because there is no more the sight and smell of rubbish. People should desist from dumping here. There are designated places to dump rubbish, but they prefer this place. We will soon gather and form a committee that will guard this place and prevent people from doing so.”
Before and after: On the left is a field in Motherwell covered in rubbish a few weeks ago. On the right is the same field (from a different position) on 2 February. (Joseph Chirume, GroundUp)
