Refuse was dumped on Monday at the doors of the Mangaung local municipality offices in “frustration” with poor service delivery.
As a result the bakkie and trailer of Mangaung FF Plus councillor Johan Powell was impounded by angry security officials of the municipality who tried to stop the offload of the refuse.
The refuse protest came from Free State Freedom Front plus leader Abrie Oosthuizen and Powell.
Oosthuizen expressed his dissatisfaction with the Mangaung municipality's “increasing inability” to deliver service in the community.
The FF Plus said that in the past weeks the party received various complaints from residents that household refuse was not collected in the city.
Oosthuizen said after many attempts to discuss the issue with officials no reaction was received. “I want to know from the municipal management the aim of the ten new refuse trucks, which were bought for millions of rand in June 2010 to remove refuse,” he said in a statement.
While Oosthuizen and Powell were offloading the refuse at the doors of the Bram Fischer building various officials tried to stop them. Security personnel were called and they asked that the vehicle and trailer be removed. In the process the keys were taken from Powell and the vehicles impounded.
Mangaung spokesman Qondile Khedama said in reaction that notice was given that the city would experience “hiccups” with refuse removal last week. “We have already dealt with the issue and have started working at the backlog.”
Khedama said the reason for the refuse pile-up in residential areas was because the refuse trucks were taken in for maintenance. Referring to the dumping incident, Khedama said Monday's action was “not necessary”, because the city was already working at the backlog.
Refuse in residential areas such as Universitas had been piling -up for the past five days.
Oosthuizen said highly paid municipal officials were responsible for services falling apart. “It is impossible to get hold of them and if messages are left they never come back.”
0osthuizen said the time for “mooipraatjies” (casual talk) was over in regard to the lack of service delivery at municipality level. Sapa