Durban - Msunduzi Municipal staff have allegedly been running the New England Road landfill site as a personal fiefdom, where bribery, rampant abuse of overtime, the dumping of hazardous waste, and truck drivers’ violent attempts to drive over contractors and security guards are the order of the day.
This is the picture painted in a damning confidential interim forensic investigation report, tabled before the municipal public accounts committee, by the city’s internal audit committee.
Chief audit executive P Mahlaba said in the report that the city had employed a private contractor, Surg Sut, to implement a turnaround strategy at the landfill site and to “remedy transgressions acquired in terms of the operation license”.
He said the firm’s staff had experienced “constant resistance” from the city’s waste department employees and drivers and “had even been threatened, and had big trucks driven at them”, which resulted in them having to jump out of the way to avoid grievous bodily harm.
“Surg Sut installed strict access control at the main gate by scanning every driver’s license and the vehicle license disk. Municipal employees refused to be subjected to this method of control and again tried to run over some of the security staff.”
According to the report, at least two staff had run recycling businesses from the site and senior municipal employees had divided sites on the dump and granted permission to individuals to operate 36 scales.
The operators weigh the waste collected by waste pickers and then sell it to recycling firms.
“One operator has confirmed that one municipal employee demands R500 per month to allow the operator on site,” Mahlaba said in the report.
One staff member had allegedly earned more than R1.7million from one waste disposal company, after operating his business since 2013.
“He also abused a municipal vehicle by using it to travel to his private business during working hours and also submitted fraudulent overtime claims,” the report said.
The report said there was evidence that another staff member had run a similar business selling recyclable material, but he had been “shot and killed over what we believe was a dispute over proceeds.
No arrests have been made.”
The report also found that municipal trucks did not report to the weighbridge and did not collect receipts for the tonnage of waste being dumped at the site, while staff were abusing overtime by claiming up to eight hours for weekend work, when trucks were parked off in suburbs for several hours. Hazardous waste had also been dumped at the landfill site.
“Fires are being caused by internal combustion, hazardous substances being dumped illegally and deliberate arsonist attempts occur proper treatment of waste material, dumped with correct capping, will assist largely to alleviate the risk of fires,” the report found.
Surg Sut chief executive Max Legatle said yesterday that it was “not a pleasant thing” for his staff to be targeted by the truck drivers and operating the landfill “on municipal activities and not private activities” had created a challenge between his management team and the staff.
“People are very resistant and sceptical to change, and we have brought in a lot of positive change and it has put some of the staff at the landfill out of business. We established a few things individuals were benefiting from and using the municipal plant to assist waste pickers,” Legatle said.
Asked to comment on the report, groundWork campaigner Musa Chamane said he was aware of the allegations and that the city needed to revise its entire waste management system.
“We are there to assist them and Love PMB is there to assist them,” he said.
He said the city should pass a by-law compelling people to separate dry and wet waste at the source, before building a facility where dry waste can be collected and sold for recycling.
Durban South Community Environmental Alliance spokesperson Desmond D’Sa said: “Waste is a thriving corruption business that allows municipal officials to earn money out of this we need to call for a general clampdown to get rid of cronyism and nepotism, and employ people on merit.”
The Mercury