Keeping eThekwini clean

with regard to financial, human and environmental issues.

In the year under review, a number of initiatives continued to improve the provision of a clean and healthy environment for all communities within the eThekwini Municipal Area. The Unit’s approach ensured that over 1 million households received a once-a-week refuse collection services, with a 5% backlog reported.

The unavailability of landfill airspace still poses a huge challenge and, as a mitigation measure, CSW secured the Shongweni Landfill Site to service communities in the Outer West regions. The construction will, however, take two to three years to complete. As an interim measure, waste from the western catchment is transported to Buffelsdraai Landfill via transfer stations.

To extend the lifespan of its landfill sites, CSW has embarked on aggressive recycling initiatives. The unit’s recycling programmes have yielded positive results; 16.47% was achieved against a target of 8% per annum and over 42 500 tonnes of waste were recycled. In respect of the percentage of municipal landfills in compliance with the Environmental Conservation Act, 80.93% was achieved against a target of 80%.

The Cleansing and Solid Waste (CSW) Unit of eThekwini Municipality is mandated exercise executive authority on solid waste management, which is to protect and enhance the health of the Municipality’s communities by providing reasonable measures for the prevention of pollution and ecological degradation. This is done by ensuring compliance and enforcement through an environmentally acceptable, cost-effective and sustainable Waste Management Service.

CSW is the leading provider of a comprehensive set of waste management services. CSW’s network of business and operations includes 32 operational centres, seven transfer stations, three landfill sites, 22 recycling plants, three landfill gas projects and two leachate plants. These assets enable CSW to provide a full range of services to 3.4 million residential, industrial and commercial customers.

In preparing its report on the 2021/22 financial year, CSW endeavoured to present a holistic and integrated representation of its performance in terms of both its profitability and its long-term sustainability. Its report reflected highlights and achievements, as well as its performance

Despite the challenging economic climate, including public unrest/looting and province-wide floods, CSW managed to exceed its revenue budget by R826 260 000. This was achieved despite CSW experiencing endless challenges with fleet breakdowns due to an ageing fleet and the unavailability of resources like wheelie bins due to delays in SCM processes.

The Unit recognised some strides during 2021/22 financial year despite the difficult economic conditions caused by the various challenges mentioned during the last financial year. Despite the challenges and setbacks, the Unit is optimistic about the year ahead and the future.

Refuse collection and street sweeping

All backlogs were cleared based on the current analysis to previously nonserviced areas. New dwellings/informal settlements are continually identified; however, this creates a moving target that is addressed on an annual basis. All major streets are cleaned daily with the CBD area being swept three times a day. High-pressure washing of streets and pavements is carried out at night, particularly in all hotspot areas within the city. Freeways and national roads within the eThekwini Municipal Area are cleaned with mechanical sweepers on a planned schedule.

CSW has engaged five major contractors for the servicing of the informal areas and 27 major contractors to provide domestic refuse collection and litter picking in the townships. The annual total spent on the township contractors amounted to R440 million and generated employment for 6 000 people within the community.

Operational performance

The percentage of houses receiving basic refuse removal service at least once a week is 95%. Each region consists of depots where key services – including refuse collection, street sweeping, the distribution of refuse bags, complaints management and illegal dumping removal – are being implemented and monitored. New developments are additional households/flats/complexes that require services in terms of waste collection and are entitled to receiving black refuse bags. These are some of the factors that results in additional black refuse bags being issued out by regions and constant withdrawals from stores, which resulted in supply constraints.

All complaints are monitored and captured through a faults-management system; however, the regions also receive complaints via calls, walk-ins and via email. These are recorded and dealt with on a specified service standard.

Challenges faced by the Cleansing and Solid Waste Unit and how these are to be addressed

Challenges Mitigation

Protest action: The biggest challenge for CSW remains service delivery protests. Another service delivery interruption emanated from the employees embarking on an illegal strike demanding a salary increase.

Supply of refuse bags: CSW experienced challenges with the supply of refuse bags during the 2021/22 financial year. The service provider that was awarded the contract was not consistent in the supply of bags, which resulted in CSW not meeting its target for the year.

Inadequate transfer stations: The Transfer Stations Unit is responsible for the containerisation and bulk transportation of domestic refuse. Less than 10% of transfer stations are fully functional across the regions, which impacts on the turnaround times for refuse collection services in particular.

Truck breakdowns: CSW’s ageing fleet resulted in increased overtime. The downtime of refuse vehicles poses a challenge in respect of service delivery.

Lack of disposal facility at Outer West: The closure of the Mariannhill and Bisasar Road landfill sites has created a huge challenge for the transportation of waste for some of the regions –i.e. Outer West, Inner West and North Central.

Priorities for 2022/23

The Unit’s objective is to provide an effective and efficient world-standard service. Given the fact that the approach on services disruptions has been continuing for more than two years, it has become imperative for CSW to take a more focused approach to resolve the challenges facing the City.

Labour-related matters urgently need to be resolved in line with Organisation Relations Agreement where Human Capital Unit takes the lead.

Supply Chain Management must ensure that contract management is strengthened on awarded contracts.

A budget must be allocated for the upgrading of the transfer stations, as well as resourcing in terms of human capital.

A budget must be set aside for the acquisition of new vehicles.

Airspace in the Outer Region must be secured urgently to reduce the travelling distances of operations trucks to further northerly and southerly landfill sites.

This approach is deemed as the most sustainable solution and further presents an opportunity for the Unit to implement the strategic objectives of its Integrated Waste Management Plan that relates to integrated waste management, which includes reduction, reuse, minimisation and avoidance.