{"id":249901,"date":"2023-02-13T18:03:13","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T16:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/rubbish-piling-up-in-emfuleni-townships\/"},"modified":"2023-02-13T18:03:13","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T16:03:13","slug":"emfuleni-municipality-is-a-mess-and-piles-of-rubbish-are-just-one-sign-of-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/emfuleni-municipality-is-a-mess-and-piles-of-rubbish-are-just-one-sign-of-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Emfuleni municipality is a mess and piles of rubbish are just one sign of this"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Chris%20Gilili\/palm_springs_garbage.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"warn_big\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/emfuleni-municipality-is-a-mess-and-piles-of-rubbish-are-just-one-sign-of-this.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">One of several dumping sites in Palm Springs which residents have resorted to using because of inadequate garbage collection by the municipality. Photos: Chris Gilili<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>People in Palm Springs say Emfuleni Municipality\u2019s routine garbage collection is hopelessly inadequate leading to illegal dumps.<\/li>\n<li>Councillors say the municipality only has half the required fleet of compactor trucks.<\/li>\n<li>The municipality owes Eskom and Rand Water billions in debt.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>People living in Palm Springs, under the Emfuleni Municipality south of Gauteng, say their garbage has gone uncollected for months.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"leave\" height=\"1\" id=\"gu_counter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/emfuleni-municipality-is-a-mess-and-piles-of-rubbish-are-just-one-sign-of-this.gif\" width=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p>Vusumuzi Nhlapo says it has been six months since they last saw a garbage truck. On top of this, there are sewage overflows.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are on our own as a community,\u201d says Nhlapo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore they would come fortnightly, and even that was inconsistent. But now there is total silence. The landfill sites only work for people who have cars. It\u2019s far. You can\u2019t expect people to walk for over two kilometres to dispose of waste \u2026 They have resorted to dumping near the houses, and you can\u2019t take the smell of this place when it is hot,\u201d said Nhlapo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey told us a couple of years ago that the sewerage system was poorly installed and the pipes are small. But nothing has been done \u2026 Meanwhile we breathe this heavy smell day and night,\u201d says Nhlapo, who lives in Zone 3.<\/p>\n<p>Palm Springs was established in 1990, and yet adequate services remain a dream for the tens of thousands who live here. There are canals at the entrance to the township choked with filth. Roads are so potholed cars have to carefully navigate their way around the place.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Chris%20Gilili\/palm_springs.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/emfuleni-municipality-is-a-mess-and-piles-of-rubbish-are-just-one-sign-of-this-1.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">This potholed road is the main access to Palm Springs. Residents say it has been in this condition for years.<\/p>\n<p>Ntswaki Khosana, from Zone 4, said, \u201cWe have ended up creating our own dumping sites in this area, and sometimes we will burn the rubbish to flatten it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yolanda Mpofu, from extension 26, said it has been years since waste was collected in Evaton West. \u201cSo we use open fields to dump \u2026 The municipality barely comes to clear illegal dumping, so as the community we try by all means to burn our refuse,\u201d said Mpofu.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/amp\/s\/www.news24.com\/amp\/fin24\/economy\/eskom-granted-order-to-attach-r13bn-of-emfulenis-assets-for-failure-to-settle-debt-20221107\">News24<\/a> reported that Eskom applied for a court order in November as the municipality owed it R5.3-billion, which it had failed to settle despite litigation dating back to 2018. In December, Eskom attached the municipality\u2019s account and movable assets, including vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/municipalities.co.za\/management\/1060\/emfuleni-local-municipality\">Municipalities of South Africa<\/a>, Emfuleni is a hung council, with an ANC plurality. It has been under administration since June 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Ward 100 Councillor Vusi Ramoshaba (ANC) said, \u201cThe attachment of our account and repossession of our equipment has affected the issue of how waste is collected. The Emfuleni Municipality is struggling with a huge debt with Eskom and Rand Water. We also are failing to collect revenue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no alternative and don\u2019t know what to tell the people regarding their refuse. I am waiting on the municipality. Collection is going to happen, I just don\u2019t know when,\u201d said Ramoshaba.<\/p>\n<p>Freedom Front Plus Councillor Gerda Senekal said, \u201cOur problems started when the ANC-led coalition took over. They employed incompetent and inexperienced people and the municipality has been spiralling down. Last year alone, our municipality account was attached four times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany waste contractors don\u2019t even want to work with eMfuleni anymore because they are often not paid \u2026 Even some industrial companies are pulling out of eMfuleni because of poor administration,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Mayoral spokesperson Mphikeleli Msibi said service providers were being paid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt no point has any of our communities gone for more than a month without collection. With unfortunate fleet limitations, the municipality has managed to collect refuse on a bi-weekly schedule and at times once in three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201dOperating with half the required fleet [of compactor trucks] means the municipality has a consistent backlog,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Msibi said ageing infrastructure and the abuse of the sewerage system caused overflows.<\/p>\n<p>Msibi said it was paying the Eskom current account and \u201cplans are in place and talks are ongoing. We are hopeful that the Eskom matter will be concluded in favour of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also worth noting is that at the time of publication the municipality\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.emfuleni.gov.za\/\">website<\/a> is down.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Chris%20Gilili\/emfuleni_sewage.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/emfuleni-municipality-is-a-mess-and-piles-of-rubbish-are-just-one-sign-of-this-2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">A resident walking in one of the streets that is overflowing water with a sewage smell.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"article_copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2023 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<p>We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, <b>not tracking<\/b> users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/emfuleni-municipality-is-a-mess-and-piles-of-rubbish-are-just-one-sign-of-this.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of several dumping sites in Palm Springs which residents have resorted to using because of inadequate garbage collection by the municipality. Photos: Chris Gilili People in Palm Springs say Emfuleni Municipality\u2019s routine garbage collection is hopelessly inadequate leading to illegal dumps. Councillors say the municipality only has half the required fleet of compactor trucks. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928,3247],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-249901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"category-news","9":"tag-groundup","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/emfuleni-municipality-is-a-mess-and-piles-of-rubbish-are-just-one-sign-of-this.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}