MUNICIPAL FEATURE| Tshwane’s R30 million illegal dumping problem

The city of Tshwane has prioritised its resources to eradicate the increasing number of illegal dumping sites across various regions in the metro. This has seen over 2 300 illegal dumping sites cleared in as little as two months.

The occurrence of illegal dumping is an ongoing problem across all nine provinces of South Africa. Moreover, these dumping sites are now on the increase. In Tshwane, there are approximately 671 illegal dumping hot spots – and those are just the ones that have been identified. They are mostly sited in townships like Soshanguve, Atteridgeville and Mamelodi.

The severity of the illegal dumping problem the City of Tshwane is battling can be seen as you drive through Atteridgeville, located to the west of Pretoria. One is immediately greeted by rows of trash as you enter the township. Every second corner is littered with waste, has been recently cleared, or has someone unloading their bin on to the massive heap already there.

According to Dana Wannenburg, MMC: Environmental and Agricultural Management, the City of Tshwane spends over R30 million per year to clear and clean these illegal dumping sites; however, Wannenburg says it feels like fighting a losing battle.

“Local municipalities do their best to inform and educate residents about the dangers of illegal dumping and the importance of using the available waste removal services; however, it is so disheartening to our officials who clean up an area, at great expense, and go back just two days later to find it filled with dumped refuse again,” says Wannenburg. “The cost involved in the cleaning of these illegal dumping sites is excessive and could honestly be better utilised in delivering other desperately needed services.”

Campaign to clean the city

The City of Tshwane launched a campaign in November 2020, which focused its resources on clearing more than 600 illegal dumping sites across the municipality. The campaign garnered good results, with Executive Mayor Randall Williams even sharing that, although eradicating these illegal dumping sites was a mammoth task, the City of Tshwane was making great progress.

The campaign also included liaising with the Chief of Police, the Deputy Chief of Police responsible for Specialised Policing, and with the Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) By-law Enforcement Unit regarding enforcement of waste management by-laws.

The following key actions have thus been instituted:

1. The Chief of Police issued a directive to instruct all uniformed TMPD officers in every region to proactively enforce the by-law and apprehend suspects when they see them.

2. The TMPD will provide weekly statistics on the number of illegal dumping cases reported, the number of incidents they responded to, and the number of incidents proactively identified and addressed.

3. The TMPD will also inform the Waste Management Division in the Department of Environmental and Agricultural Management of reported illegal dumping incidents for these to be cleared.

Any person found guilty of illegal dumping is now liable to a maximum period of imprisonment of three years or a R60 000 fine, or both, as determined by a court. The metro could further recover remedial and administrative costs as applicable, as well as the costs of cleaning up the illegally disposed waste from the offender.

“Transgressors know very well that what they are doing is illegal, but it just seems that they have no regard for the law. You can clearly see the sign that says no dumping, and yet they dump right under it,” says Wannenburg.

Educating the community

Wannenburg adds that the City of Tshwane had also started with educational projects to help people understand the financial, health and environmental impacts of these sites.

“A lot of the dumping is caused by backyard dwellers or households that have a lot of members living there, where one dustbin is not enough because it gets filled up quickly and they have to remove it from their yards,” he says.

Wannenburg notes that the metro intends on looking into how landlords dispose of rubbish from their properties and working out a solution for that.

He adds that the City of Tshwane is continuously monitoring these locations to catch the culprits, but it now needs the public to help combat illegal dumping by reporting these perpetrators.

“These criminal activities negatively impact the lives of community members. These sites serve as a breeding ground for all kinds of things that can cause life-threatening diseases. We are at a point where we need these communities to help us help them. By first reporting, and also to let us know how we can solve this illegal dumping problem, because we have tried different things and it seems that it’s not working. So, it’s really up to them now.”

How the public can address the issue of littering and illegal dumping: • Talk to the person directly. • Report those orchestrating dumping activities to the authorities. • Report those dumping waste by providing their names, vehicle registration details or the addresses of alleged perpetrators. • Educate and be a good example to the children in your communities.

An alternative solution

Wannenburg says the metro is also investigating new ways to solve the dumping problem, where larger skip containers will be placed near the illegal sites for the community to use.

“We will then be able to see if this will help to prevent community members from dumping on open land.”

“So, while we’re out cleaning and clearing, we rely heavily on residents to put an end to this practice. It is up to all of us to safeguard our environment for our children and the generations to follow. We are thus pleading with residents to assist the municipality by guarding against any illegal dumping practices in communities and to make sure that, once we have cleaned the area, they help us to keep it clean.”

He adds that it is important to note that in a number of instances where skips are placed on illegal dumping hotspots, people still do not use the skips – opting instead to dump on the ground around it. “We have also found that skips get vandalised and are sometimes cut up completely to be sold for scrap metal – which inevitably increases the drain on our resources,” states Wannenburg.

The City of Tshwane also believes that residents have to realise that illegal dumping affects everyone – not just residents in the immediate vicinity of the dumping sites.