Cape Town - Rubbish that piled up in Masiphumelele’s streets during the festive season has still not been removed.
The tender for cleaning and refuse removal in Masiphumelele and various other suburbs expired on December 31, 2016, City of Cape Town spokesperson Priya Reddy said on Friday.
A new tender had been awarded and the new contractors would start on February 1, GroundUp reported.
She said contingency measures had been taken to start cleaning the township this week. However, on Friday morning, GroundUp saw no evidence of this.
Across the road from Ronald Banda’s house, piles of rubbish had been thrown. The smell was unbearable.
He complained to the city in December, but nothing was done. Rubbish kept piling up. On Wednesday, he was told it would take seven working days before cleaning began.
“It smells because people throw all sorts of stuff here. It’s so dirty. Dogs come and eat from there and there are children that play there, which is not healthy. There is a crèche just there. What if the children get sick because of that?” asked Banda.
Another resident said street cleaning stopped long before the end of December and even rubbish collection was not done frequently.
“People need to take responsibility for throwing the rubbish like that, but the City also needs to realise that when bins are not collected people will do such things because not everyone has the resources to go to a dumping site which is far from their homes,” she said.
Reddy said a team of workers and mechanical sweepers were busy in Masiphumelele.