After rebuilding and managing Buffalo City’s main Roundhill waste tip for the past two years, Interwaste Environmental Solutions faced being left out in the cold as Buffalo City Municipality dragged its feet on renewing their contract.
In a desperate attempt to gain more time and plan ahead, BCM issued Interwaste with a written three-month extension of their contract yesterday, which Interwaste’s facilities director Leon Grobbelaar welcomed.
Speaking to the Dispatch, Grobbelaar said they had submitted a letter of extension to BCM a month ago and received no feedback until yesterday. May 31 was Grobbelaar and his employees’ last day on contract.
He claimed there would be dire consequences for the greater Buffalo City area should the tip be left unattended, even only for five days.
“We are proud of the work we have done because we have a responsibility to the public and BCM to maintain the facility which we believe we’ve done,” Grobbelaar said.
“My biggest concern is that should the tip be left unattended for more than five days it would cause absolute chaos and we have proved that we can maintain the landfill to the highest standards.”
Grobbelaar added that Interwaste’s staff members’ jobs would also have been affected.
“Our staff members are experienced and trained in this type of work, and should no one be appointed, they would be left without an income,” Grobbelaar said.
The department of solid waste’s general manager Nomphelo Daniels was unable to offer comment, but BCM spokesman Sibusiso Cindi said the municipality was aware that they had issues with waste management and hoped Grobbelaar did not leave the site as his exit would have dire consequences for the greater municipality.
“We normally do issue extension contracts in writing and in this case the contractor should be kept on because we do not have an alternative plan in place.
“Our goal as a municipality is to ensure service delivery projects run smoothly and without any disruptions.”
Interwaste, a Johannesburg-based company, was on a fixed-term contract to manage the landfill site for a 24-month period.
Interwaste was awarded the R47-million tender to manage the regional landfill sites and started with a clean-up operation before constructing a temporary emergency cell in 2015.
Once the major clean-up was complete, smaller amounts of daily maintenance were necessary.
Fires at the site have been a frequent hazard, polluting the air with noxious gases and reducing motorists’ visibility on the N2 and surrounding roads.
BCM called upon the experts to do damage control on the project.
Berlin Farmers’ Association member Mike Mangold said Interwaste was brought in as an emergency solution due to the dire state of the tip.
“It was an emergency contract that was issued to Interwaste because this site was in such a bad state that it didn’t comply with the requirements,” Mangold said.
The site was now 80% compliant.
The gap in compliance earlier, resulted in some companies transporting their waste from East London to Port Elizabeth.
Tip disaster averted as contract extended
In a desperate attempt to gain more time and plan ahead, BCM issued Interwaste with a written three-month extension of their contract yesterday, which Interwaste’s facilities director Leon Grobbelaar welcomed.
Speaking to the Dispatch, Grobbelaar said they had submitted a letter of extension to BCM a month ago and received no feedback until yesterday. May 31 was Grobbelaar and his employees’ last day on contract.
He claimed there would be dire consequences for the greater Buffalo City area should the tip be left unattended, even only for five days.
“We are proud of the work we have done because we have a responsibility to the public and BCM to maintain the facility which we believe we’ve done,” Grobbelaar said.
“My biggest concern is that should the tip be left unattended for more than five days it would cause absolute chaos and we have proved that we can maintain the landfill to the highest standards.”
Grobbelaar added that Interwaste’s staff members’ jobs would also have been affected.
“Our staff members are experienced and trained in this type of work, and should no one be appointed, they would be left without an income,” Grobbelaar said.
The department of solid waste’s general manager Nomphelo Daniels was unable to offer comment, but BCM spokesman Sibusiso Cindi said the municipality was aware that they had issues with waste management and hoped Grobbelaar did not leave the site as his exit would have dire consequences for the greater municipality.
“We normally do issue extension contracts in writing and in this case the contractor should be kept on because we do not have an alternative plan in place.
“Our goal as a municipality is to ensure service delivery projects run smoothly and without any disruptions.”
Interwaste, a Johannesburg-based company, was on a fixed-term contract to manage the landfill site for a 24-month period.
Interwaste was awarded the R47-million tender to manage the regional landfill sites and started with a clean-up operation before constructing a temporary emergency cell in 2015.
Once the major clean-up was complete, smaller amounts of daily maintenance were necessary.
Fires at the site have been a frequent hazard, polluting the air with noxious gases and reducing motorists’ visibility on the N2 and surrounding roads.
BCM called upon the experts to do damage control on the project.
Berlin Farmers’ Association member Mike Mangold said Interwaste was brought in as an emergency solution due to the dire state of the tip.
“It was an emergency contract that was issued to Interwaste because this site was in such a bad state that it didn’t comply with the requirements,” Mangold said.
The site was now 80% compliant.
The gap in compliance earlier, resulted in some companies transporting their waste from East London to Port Elizabeth.
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