Southern suburb residents are up in arms over delays in refuse collection.
A caretaker of a Kenilworth apartment complex was left waiting for four days before the complex’s bins were emptied by city workers.
“It’s normally on a Wednesday,” he said. “This week, they didn’t come Thursday, they didn’t come Friday. They then came on Saturday. Last week, they also only came on a Thursday.”
The caretaker continued: “We’ve got 10 or 11 bins and I’m hoping to get some more. What really trips me is when they empty the bins, they leave such a mess on the road. They don’t clean up. I’ve got to go out and clean it all up and this goes on every week.”
Meanwhile, Gavin Adams in Plumstead, said the delays are resulting in health and safety concerns. “My wife’s been telling me about maggots infesting the place, crawling out of the bins,” he said. “And obviously with the bins out, you have vagrants scratching around them and that creates safety risks.
‘Two weeks ago, there was a two-day delay when they normally pick up on a Friday morning. They never came on Saturday and then only on Sunday did they come.”
The City of Cape Town advised residents that there would be delays due to the maintenance of solid waste vehicles.
“Every effort is being made to ensure that refuse is collected on the scheduled day, however, should this not be possible, residents should take their bins in at 9pm, and bring them out again the following morning at 6am,” the city said. “If not collected on the scheduled day, it will generally be collected the following day. In exceptional cases where even this is not possible due to various issues, residents should please bring their bins out every day until it is collected (including Saturdays and Sundays).”
Xanthea Limberg, mayco member for water and waste, said collections staff were working double shifts, including weekends to clear the backlogs.
Regarding refuse workers leaving litter behind, Limberg said “Refuse crews are equipped with brooms and spades to clean their own spillage, should refuse fall out of the bins during the process of servicing them.
"Staff will be reminded to ensure that the spillage is also cleaned.”
Sandra Dickson, founder of Stop CoCT, said the delays were a recurring problem, also impacting the Northern suburbs.
“Over the last couple of months, ever since we’ve spoken about it, there’s usually a two-to-three day period when it’s fine,” she said. “The general feeling amongst the public is that the service is unreliable. The refuse removal topic comes up quite often.”