DURBAN - 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 has not been able to collect rubbish in the township for the past 14 days after an unidentified business forum threatened its staff. The city has struggled to consistently collect refuse in the city’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 the city to revert back to outsourcing the refuse collection to private contractors. The service was in-sourced about a year ago following tensions over the employment of contractors to collect refuse. This led to the city deciding to in-source the service and hire people from the township as workers.
The city viewed the latest intimidation of its staff 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 speak to the media, said this was equivalent to “poking” the people of uMlazi in the eye.
Rubbish that was supposed to have been collected in the last two weeks was still piling up on the streets and this week’s collection has not started.
Municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said the service was 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 the city workers that are doing their jobs. What kind of a country are we going to have if we allow for 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 in their properties until notice of resumption of services is 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 exco 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, secretary general of FFRET (Federation for Radical Economic Transformation), said the business 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 be just community members or it could be business forums that have been formed at a ward level,” said Ndlela.
The 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 continue to impact negatively on service delivery.
Mbangeni Mjadu, 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 interfere with refuse collection is these business forums. In this hostel we do not tolerate such, and the forums are not welcomed here,” he said.
DA councillor in ward 88, Nomfundo Khuboni, said they were in the dark about the reasons for 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 in his ward there had been no problems that he had been made aware of.
“I have not received any complaints and the streets in my ward are still clean.”
The Mercury