Skip to content Skip to left sidebar Skip to footer

24 November 2020 Media Release: Municipalities place skips in Thembalethu and Pacaltsdorp

Media Release: Municipalities place skips in Thembalethu and Pacaltsdorp

For Immediate Release
24 November 2020

Illegal dumping sites remain a problem for all seven (7) local municipalities in the Garden Route. As part of the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) and George Municipality (GM) illegal dumping response, Thembalethu and Pacaltsdorp have been earmarked for additional assistance. As of now, nine (9) x 6m³ waste skips have been placed at illegal dumping hotspots. This includes seven (7) for Thembalethu and two (2) for Pacaltsdorp. These waste skips are being hired for the interim until George Municipality has concluded the procurement process of their own waste skips to be placed in and around illegal dumping hotspots in George.

Members of the public are urged to make proper use of the waste skips for disposing their household waste. The skips are meant to be used for refuse that cannot be stored until the weekly refuse removal days of GM.

According to Johan Compion, Manager: Municipal Health and Environmental Services for GRDM, “The placement and proper management of skips could also provide a solution to illegal dumping.  We are hopeful that a notable change will be visible as this pilot project continues, in addition, we await survey data being collected at the moment to provide more insights into the issue.”

Skips are free for everyone to use, but at the same time the public has to keep in mind that once skips are removed from hotspot areas, it does not mean that illegal dumping is permitted. General assumptions by GRDM about illegal dumping is that it takes place more frequently in informal or poorer communities because people can’t afford the transport or removal of waste to waste transfer stations.

The process of ensuring that skips are frequently emptied involves skip contractors. These small business owners are responsible for transporting waste skips to the George Waste Transfer Station. After emptying each skip, the containers are returned to the hotspots where they were collected. The help of 30 EPWP workers is evermore important as they assist municipalities to clear areas inaccessible to machinery. These same EPWP workers also tasked to assist the public, especially the elderly and children, to dispose of waste into the skips.

Twelve (12) Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) participants are still on the ground working with the JCBs to clear illegal dump sites. Thirty six (36) educators are also doing door-to-door education and awareness as well as a survey to determine the causal factors of illegal dumping; and the community requirements; or possible solutions to prevent issues in future. Twenty four (24) educators are working in Thembalethu and 12 in Pacaltsdorp. Each person, who moves in a group of six (6), is easily identifiable by a high visibility vest and identification cards.

Garden Route District Municipality wants to remind the public that Illegal dumping is a danger to your health and that of your children and animals – let’s put an end to illegal dumping and report perpetrators to our local municipalities.

Caption: A skip used for dumping waste at a spot in Nelson Mandela Boulevard.

ENDS