Cape Town - A group of Belhar grannies say they are fed up of cleaning up the City of Cape Town as council trucks do not collect the rubbish at their flats.
The grandmothers, who are Walking Bus volunteers, have been taking out the trash at the Chestnut Place flats for several weeks now and say they have had enough of picking up dirty nappies and used sanitary pads.
With more than 200 flats, the pensioners say there are two bin rooms on either side of the flats where the wheelie bins are kept, but City cleaners are refusing to fetch the bins at the back due to gang activity in the area.
Selma Louw, 63, says they have to collect the bins and push them to the front every second day.
“The boys don’t want to work for free so we must do it. Look at this rubbish, it is dangerous for the community,” she says.
“So we fill the bins and take them to the truck in the front because the council workers don’t want to come to the back, but we are old and look how far is it to walk.
“Also, we don’t have gloves or anything and now must use our hands to pick up nappies and sanitary pads.”
Resident Anneline Simons says to make matters worse, recently one of the bin rooms was locked and the wheelie bins could not be accessed.
This, she says, resulted in many people simply dumping their rubbish. Dirty nappies, rotten food and other waste can still be seen, and smelled, at the back of the flats.
HAD ENOUGH: Grannies fed-up of having to take out the trash in Chestnut Place
“Now we have to clean up. We told the councillor about this and nothing. They were also supposed to get a contractor in, but there hasn’t been a contractor to clean since the end of June.
“Why can’t she come here and see how bad it is? She doesn’t respond to our messages.”
Mayco Member for Assets and Facilities Management, Stuart Diamond, says there has been a delay with appointing Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers, and not a cleaning contractor.
“It is envisaged to have the workers on site by 15 September,” he says.
He says the collection truck cannot enter the court and wheelie bins have to be moved to the pavement to facilitate pick-up, which is done twice a week.
Selma, however, questioned why the City could not pay them for the cleaning.
Ward councillor, Johanna Louw, says: “I took the issue up with the housing department. They have confirmed that the key for the bin room is missing and people have to register with the subcouncil office to become EPWP workers.
“I know they blame me, but there are procedures. I also allocated an extra R50 000 for the cleaning at Chestnut.”