GATVOL residents of Makhaza in Cape Town have taken their city to task regarding the removal of rubbish in their kasi.
The informal settlements in ward 96 in Khayelitsha took to the streets, throwing and burning rubbish on the street.
Speaking to Daily Sun, residents said since May 2023, rubbish collection has been inconsistent in their kasi as it is only removed occasionally.
“We are gatvol. People are fed up with this garbage all over our kasi. So, we throw rubbish on the road. We want the municipality to see what they are subjecting us to daily. Maybe they don’t see the rubbish if it is inside containers. Hence, we decided to throw it on the road surface,” said resident Nomhle Mngakani.
She alleged that many kids from her kasi were getting sick because of the rubbish that was not removed.
Besides that, residents felt like they were living with rotten rubbish inside their homes because of the stench.
Nomhle said the rubbish had become a home to worms and rats now terrorising them at night.
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"Rubbish brings rats to our kasi. Even our groceries are not safe. Rats from these rubbish piles are tormenting us. Even when you sleep, you feel them running on our blankets," said Nomhle.
Resident Thembinkosi Pupu said they were tired of stories from the City of Cape Town.
“They keep promising that they will bring cleaners and remove rubbish, but there is nothing. We thought that this month we would have cleaners and our streets would be cleaned, but still, there is nothing,” said Pupu.
City of Cape Town MMC for Urban Waste Management Grant Twigg said he knew about the cleaning service disruption in the Makhaza, Khayelitsha area and residents’ concerns.
"The city has been providing an interim cleaning service to collect refuse as far as possible, using staff from its other cleansing programmes and projects to help with service delivery to affected informal settlement areas.
"Affected areas have periodically received refuse removal and area cleaning since July 2023 when contracts with service providers were terminated, however not at the normal weekly standards," he said.
"Siyazenzela was the new EPWP-driven programme for cleaning services in informal settlements that the city intended to implement from 1 July 2023 after the contracts were terminated. However, this programme could not be implemented due to a legal challenge," said Twigg.
