The rubbish piling up on a field in Gugulethu has angered residents.
It has been collecting at the site next to NY 1 for up to a month and is starting to encroach on people’s yards with residents now threatening to march to the municipal offices about it.
“This is a bad sight and health hazard. This is an illegal dumping site and people from other areas come to dump their rubbish here. They suffocate us with rubbish. They even drop dead animals here. You can imagine the smell that comes to our houses,” said a resident who would only identify herself as Nobantu.
“The place is sometimes cleared by the municipality, but not always. I think the City of Cape Town should shoulder the blame for this. The City should make sure that the area is fenced. We report this on several occasions with no success.”
Pointing to a makeshift shelter at the site, Nobantu said a vagrant was staying there.
“This should be stopped before it gets worse. This is Cape Town, where people are killed and dumped. We are still lucky that no dead body has been found here,” she said.
Another resident, who did not want to be named, said residents had only themselves to blame.
“We have seen municipal trucks cleaning here, but quickly there is rubbish. We cannot, when it suits us, shift the blame to the City of Cape Town. The City has done its bit, but we are failing to do ours. We live here so we need to be responsible enough. Why are we not taking care of our place?
“You will never see this in white areas. People should take responsibility for their deeds.
“It is always easy to say let us protest, but who did this? Is it us or the City? As I have said, at some point we need to look at ourselves and start doing the right things for us, for our children and for this community. There are individuals who just want to fool us to think that there is no service delivery by the City. This is political instead of being reality.”
Both ward councillor Thembinkosi Mjuza and the City of Cape Town did not respond to our questions by deadline.
