Cape Town - With the massive problem of illegal dumping in under-resourced areas across Cape Town, the City has allocated R5 million for a city-wide clean-up campaign that started off in Mitchells Plain this week, and is set to continue over the next couple of months.
However, some communities and waste management services are not convinced this campaign has the capacity to address the problem of waste, especially illegal dumping, in the city.
“Over the course of the next couple of months, I invite every Capetonian to join me on this campaign in various parts of our beautiful city and do their part to keep Cape Town clean together,” said mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
Hill-Lewis said the R5m allocation in the January adjustment budget was to support the campaign to drive mindset change through various messaging activities. This was separate from the budget allocations for the provision of cleansing and sanitation services in communities.
Waste-ED founder Candice Mostert said the best way to address the problem of illegal dumping was to put most of the budget into creating beneficial, cyclical waste systems for people.
Mostert said that previously huge amounts of money had been spent just to clean up after the community, instead of dealing directly with the issues of waste education and management implementations that were needed in each local area.
“A call for all Capetonians to do their part is one thing, and we can all put our waste into bins supplied instead of dropping things on the floor or dumping, but it still doesn’t deal with the core issues of diverting this mixed waste still heading to landfill,” said Mostert.
Fadiel Adams, the leader of the Cape Coloured Congress, congratulated Hill-Lewis on his attempt to start cleaning the Mitchells Plain town centre.
“The new mayor has done in a few months what his predecessors have ignored for decades. It was due to the prompting of the Cape Coloured Congress to the City to pay attention to the town centre that brought this about,” said Adams.
Mitchells Plain United Residents Association (Mura) chairperson Norman Jantjes said illegal dumping was a big problem in lower-income parts of Mitchells Plain.
Jantjes said that if the City wanted to make a meaningful and sustainable difference then it should engage local community organisations and get buy-in from the community, because each community differed.
Parkwood community leader Rashad Allen said a big part of the dumping problem in their community was the fact that there were not enough bins to cater to backyard dwellers and overpopulated households.
Plumstead community activist Ursula Schenker said unless the allocated R5m was utilised at a grassroots level to regularly educate people, the money would become yet another albatross around the necks of already burdened ratepayers.