UNCOLLECTED rubbish is piling up on the streets of uMlazi because a “business forum” demanding work from the eThekwini Municipality has stopped refuse collection by threatening municipal employees, forcing the council to pull its workers out of the area.
The municipality said it had not been able to collect rubbish in the township for the past 14 days after an unidentified business forum threatened its staff. The city had struggled to consistently collect refuse in Durban’s largest township as the service is interrupted every few months.
The Mercury has been reliably informed that the unidentified business forum wants to force the city to revert to outsourcing the refuse collection to private contractors. The service was insourced about a year ago following tensions over the employment of contractors to collect refuse. This led to the city deciding to insource the service and hire people from the township as workers.
The city viewed the latest intimidation of its staff to prevent them from carrying out their duties as tantamount to treason, saying the “criminals” disguised as business forums were depriving more than 60 000 people of basic services.
A city official, speaking confidentially as he was not authorised to talk to the media, said this behaviour was equivalent to poking the people of uMlazi in the eye.
Rubbish that was supposed to have been collected over the past two weeks was still piling up on the streets, and this week’s collection had not started.
Municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said the service had been interrupted due to threats to city employees rendering the service by an unknown business forum grouping.
“Enough is enough. We cannot have a situation where people wake up and threaten to kill city workers who are just doing their jobs.
“What kind of a country are we going to have if we allow this situation to continue?
“We urge the law-enforcement agencies to assist in arresting the people behind this campaign. These people are known, and it is not the first time they have done this,” he said.
Mayisela said residents should keep their refuse bags on their properties until notice of resumption of services were communicated. “The municipality is working around the clock to get a solution to this challenge for the situation to return to normalcy with speed. We regret any inconvenience caused. The city wishes to sincerely apologise to residents of uMlazi for the non-collection of refuse,” he said.
IFP executive council member Mdu Nkosi said this problem was a sign that there was a lack of leadership in the city, both at political and administrative level.
“It cannot be that the people of uMlazi are faced with the same problem time after time – what is the challenge in addressing this issue? The city cannot allow for ‘business forums’ to just stop the work of the municipality. How are the people of uMlazi supposed to feel about this, having to live with the smell of uncollected rubbish?” he asked.
Robert Ndlela, the secretary general of FFRET (Federation for Radical Economic Transformation), said the forum that stopped the work in uMlazi was not part of their affiliates.
“We have not heard anything about the situation in uMlazi, it could very well just be community members, or it could be business forums that have been formed at a ward level,” said Ndlela.
Residents and opposition party councillors in the area said the failure to collect refuse was becoming a norm.
IFP councillor in uMlazi’s ward 85, Ntombifuthi Gumede, said: “The rubbish is on the street and dogs tear open the refuse bags, which leads to rubbish spreading on the streets. This issue is a health hazard.”
She said business forums were a challenge and continued to negatively affect service delivery.
Mbangeni Mjadu, an IFP councillor in uMlazi’s T section hostel, said because they had no business forums in his area, services had not been interrupted.
“I saw the city workers on Thursday and they were back again on Monday removing the refuse in our ward. One of the things that interferes with refuse collection is these ‘business forums’. In this hostel we do not tolerate such, and the forums are not welcome here,” he said.
DA councillor in ward 88, Nomfundo Khuboni, said they were in the dark about the reasons for the non-collection of refuse.
Several ANC councillors called by The Mercury yesterday could not be reached for comment as their phones were switched off.
ANC councillor in ward 82, Amon Dladla, said that he had not been made aware of any problems in his ward.
“I have not received any complaints and the streets in my ward are still clean.”