Piles of rubbish outside the recently opened Gilwell Taxi Rank Park have raised the ire of both customers and commuters.While most of the rubbish is in black refuse bags, there are plenty of empty food containers, sweet wrappers and plastic bottles flying around loose in the wind.
Dirty, smelly water flowing out of a drain situated along the same road adds to the misery, with the water pooling outside of a delivery gate.
The stairs leading to the mall’s main entrance and parking lot, however, remain clean.
Samela Memani, who uses the taxi rank on a daily basis to get to and from school, said the heaps of rubbish had been there from as far back as November.
“There was rubbish here just a few days after this mall opened and it’s been here since. There is usually a lot more than this – maybe some of it blew away in the wind,” Memani said.
“My friends and I have taught ourselves to ignore it and as a result we just don’t see it any more.”
Fellow commuter Anelisa Mkhofa said she thought the rubbish had been left uncollected due to the festive season break.
“But most people are back at work now and the rubbish is still there. It’s disgusting, it stinks and we have to walk strategically to try and avoid it hitting our legs or landing on our faces,” she said.
Siyakholwa Macanda said the rubbish created a disorderly feel to the taxi rank.
“We understand that this mall is situated in the middle of town, which is always dirty, but it really doesn’t need to look like this. The taxi ranks at the other malls don’t look like this so we’ll just end up shopping there,” she said.
The R316-million mall opened on November 12 last year.
Situated downtown, the centre was developed for the Dipula Income Fund by Isbonelo Property Services and Eris Property Group.
The three-level shopping centre boasts tenants ranging from jewellery, food, clothing and shoe stores. The new mall accommodates public transport and retail stores under one roof.
Operations manager Chris Reynolds said the area was meant to be cleaned twice a day – during the day and at night – in accordance with their agreement with the Buffalo City Metro (BCM).
He said the dirty water was as a result of a leak, which had allegedly been reported to the metro several times.
“The area has since been cleaned up but the matter with the water leak remains as we are still waiting for the municipality to act,” he said.
BCM spokesman Thandy Matebese said while he could not comment on the municipality’s agreement with the mall offhand, there was a cleanliness challenge in the city.
“Cleanliness is one of our priority areas and to show a commitment to it, we started a cleanliness campaign in King William’s Town where the entire town will be cleaned including open spaces and the graveyard,” he said, while also urging people to clean up after themselves as well. — zisandan@dispatch.co.za
Taxi rank rubbish irks commuters
While most of the rubbish is in black refuse bags, there are plenty of empty food containers, sweet wrappers and plastic bottles flying around loose in the wind.
Dirty, smelly water flowing out of a drain situated along the same road adds to the misery, with the water pooling outside of a delivery gate.
The stairs leading to the mall’s main entrance and parking lot, however, remain clean.
Samela Memani, who uses the taxi rank on a daily basis to get to and from school, said the heaps of rubbish had been there from as far back as November.
“There was rubbish here just a few days after this mall opened and it’s been here since. There is usually a lot more than this – maybe some of it blew away in the wind,” Memani said.
“My friends and I have taught ourselves to ignore it and as a result we just don’t see it any more.”
Fellow commuter Anelisa Mkhofa said she thought the rubbish had been left uncollected due to the festive season break.
“But most people are back at work now and the rubbish is still there. It’s disgusting, it stinks and we have to walk strategically to try and avoid it hitting our legs or landing on our faces,” she said.
Siyakholwa Macanda said the rubbish created a disorderly feel to the taxi rank.
“We understand that this mall is situated in the middle of town, which is always dirty, but it really doesn’t need to look like this. The taxi ranks at the other malls don’t look like this so we’ll just end up shopping there,” she said.
The R316-million mall opened on November 12 last year.
Situated downtown, the centre was developed for the Dipula Income Fund by Isbonelo Property Services and Eris Property Group.
The three-level shopping centre boasts tenants ranging from jewellery, food, clothing and shoe stores. The new mall accommodates public transport and retail stores under one roof.
Operations manager Chris Reynolds said the area was meant to be cleaned twice a day – during the day and at night – in accordance with their agreement with the Buffalo City Metro (BCM).
He said the dirty water was as a result of a leak, which had allegedly been reported to the metro several times.
“The area has since been cleaned up but the matter with the water leak remains as we are still waiting for the municipality to act,” he said.
BCM spokesman Thandy Matebese said while he could not comment on the municipality’s agreement with the mall offhand, there was a cleanliness challenge in the city.
“Cleanliness is one of our priority areas and to show a commitment to it, we started a cleanliness campaign in King William’s Town where the entire town will be cleaned including open spaces and the graveyard,” he said, while also urging people to clean up after themselves as well. — zisandan@dispatch.co.za
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