Note to editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Leanne De Jager MPL.
City of Johannesburg (COJ) residents are suffering due to waste build-up as the Pikitup protest is impacting refuse collection services and posing health and environmental risks.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) MEC Jacob Mamabolo to intervene and engage both the COJ and Pikitup to find an urgent solution to the ongoing waste collection crisis.
Some Joburg residents report having gone more than 18 days without refuse collection. The depots in Waterval, Randburg and Roodepoort operate intermittently despite reports that the Pikitup strike has been halted, leaving major backlogs and inconsistent service delivery, particularly in township areas.
The growing accumulation of uncollected refuse across the City’s suburbs, townships and informal settlements now poses a severe public health threat. The rotting waste creates breeding grounds for rats, cockroaches and flies, significantly increasing the risk of diseases such as Cholera, Typhoid, Gastroenteritis and other communicable diseases.
The disruption of waste collection is harming children in schools and Early Childhood Development Centres (ECD). The residents and businesses are forced to pay for private waste removal, which is a double burden on ratepayers already paying for services they are not receiving.
The DA calls on MEC Mamabolo to push the City of Johannesburg to declare the waste backlog a public health emergency and deploy emergency removal teams immediately. We also urge the Gauteng MEC for Environment, Ewan Botha, to mobilise his department’s environmental health and compliance teams to monitor, document, and remediate the environmental damage already caused.
Johannesburg residents deserve the dignified services they pay for and are legally entitled to. Only the DA can ensure that every resident of Gauteng enjoys peace and that their bins are emptied regularly and on time. Yes, we can!