Pretoria - A plan to remove rubbish illegally dumped in about 477 spots in the City of Tshwane is under way.
The MMC for Environmental Affairs, Dana Wannenburg, said they were aware and concerned and condemned the illegal dumping of enormous amounts of rubbish.
“Waste collection services follow a strict schedule. There is an approved illegal dump clearing plan for implementation from this month, with priority to clear 477 identified spots on main and arterial roads.”
He said illegal dumping cases where people were suspected to have contravened Section 22 (1) of the Waste Management By-law were referred to law enforcement officers, which in this case was the Tshwane Metro Police Department, for further action and where necessary, prosecution.
While Pretoria has a lot of offenders in terms of illegal dumping, and disregard of by-laws with areas such as the east of the city seeing a street corner and one lane of a street being barricaded with rubbish from illegal dumpers, comprising garden waste and household waste, most got away with the criminal act.
Wannenburg said Section 30 (1) and (2) of the Waste Management By-law was clear, and warned illegal dumpers.
“A person who contravenes or fails to comply with any provision of these by-laws is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding the amount as determined by a competent court from time to time.”
In a bid to punish offenders, Wannenburg said the department and the municipal courts recently finalised a schedule of fines to be imposed on offenders, which would be published in due course.
The metro once had a plan to reward whistle-blowers on illegal dumping as cases grew, but according to Wannenburg, this combative measure did not prove to be effective even though it was punted to help expose some of the culprits behind illegal dumping.
“The plan had to be revised to prevent it from being abused by people who intended to use it for money-making purposes,” said Wannenburg.
He said while there was no backlog in terms of waste collection, there were certain sites that were experiencing pressure, especially those receiving garden refuse.
He said the City was addressing this backlog and making steady progress, and the recent closure of the Menlo Park garden refuse site was one such example.
In a bid to also improve waste management in the City, Wannenburg said the development of the waste management strategy still needed to comply with the National Waste Management Strategy.
This was well under way, the MMC said.
Pretoria News