Note to Editors: Attached please find a soundbite in English here and Afrikaans here by Leanne De Jager MPL.
Residents living in Lombardy West, East, River Park and Alexandra have had to endure illegal dumping and burning for the last five years. This puts their health at risk and has also damaged both banks of the Jukskei River where the illegal dumping is taking place.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng is urging the City of Johannesburg to declare illegal dumping and burning in Lombardy East and West a crisis. In addition, the city must respond with a coordinated, multi-departmental intervention, including law enforcement agencies and the Gauteng Department of Environment.
The land was once green and undeveloped. It is now a smouldering mountain of waste in the middle of a residential suburb, with trucks reportedly offloading up to 20 loads of waste an hour.
See photos here, here, here, and here.
It is unacceptable that residents, including children with disabilities, are forced to breathe in toxic fumes daily. The dumping site is close to the Sithandiwe Disabled Centre for children, and some of the children are now reportedly on oxygen because of the fumes.
Furthermore, the pollution from the illegal dump site has become so bad that one resident with asthma can no longer leave his home and is dependent on oxygen. His neighbour, who was never sick before, has developed a chest infection.
Residents are concerned that the site poses a security risk to the nearby Alexandra Power Station, which was vandalised two weeks ago, leaving the area without electricity for nearly a week. It is alleged that an armed syndicate is behind the illegal dumping activities.
The DA will table questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to the MEC for Environment, Ewan Botha, to determine how his department is intervening to assist the City of Joburg in addressing the environmental issues they face.
City of Joburg residents deserve a government that can clamp down on illegal dumping sites as soon as they are reported. Service delivery is not a luxury; it is a fundamental right that residents pay for through their rates and taxes. To end the ongoing chaos in the City of Joburg, residents must vote DA on 4 November.