King William’s Town resident Thobela James is at the end of his rope with illegal dumping occurring outside his Phakamisa township home.
Because his house is situated away from the main part of the settlement, people believe they can use the open land for dumping.
This has caused a health hazard for James and his family, who at times cannot open their windows because of the foul smell from the illegal dumping site.
“When people do renovations or clean up their homes, they just dump everything here, even though there is a ‘no dumping’ sign.
“There’s everything here, from bricks to plastic and even nappies,” he said.
James has been reporting the matter to BCM for more than two years without success.
“The municipality doesn’t clean here, only the main part of Phakamisa. And they only did this [clean-up] now because the president was coming to Buffalo City.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa was in East London on Friday, where he launched the national good green deeds programme (see page 5), which is aimed at changing behaviour towards littering, illegal dumping and towards waste in general.
The rubbish next to his home attracted flies and rats, posing a health risk, he said.
Sometimes it blew into his yard to the point that he could not even open his front door.
He also bemoaned the fact that roads outside his house were still gravel, and had not been tarred.
“I have been here since 2004 and nothing is happening.
“Why must I pay R2,500 a month for rates and water and electricity when I can’t even get basic services?”
See BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya’s comment on the city’s plans to curb illegal dumping is in the above article...