Missionvale complains about uncollected rubbish

As the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality embarks on an ambitious service delivery audit to gauge customer satisfaction, some residents in Missionvale have bemoaned appalling services in their area. Their complaints were centred on frequent electricity cuts, overflowing sewerage and stormwater drains, rubbish that has not been collected, allegedly for months, and filthy streets. “It’s a complete disgrace,” Nomalungelo Boo, 59, said. “My biggest problem is the rubbish. “I don’t even remember when last I’ve seen the municipal truck collecting rubbish in the [Greenfield] area because, as you can see, there are used baby diapers all over the place. I mean, look at all the flies. It’s so dirty.” Another resident, Bettie Muggels, 49, said the last time she saw a refuse truck in the area had been in June last year.

“Now people use this [open] space across from my house as a rubbish dump,” she said. “We don’t even get black bags so people just dump their rubbish without putting it in bags first.” Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki denied refuse was not collected in Missionvale. “It is collected. However, in some instances [when] refuse trucks experience technical faults, delays are communicated to the councillor’s office to communicate to communities.” Mniki said the customer satisfaction survey, which will take place until April 26, was aimed at identifying service delivery shortfalls across the metro. The municipality said fieldworkers, carrying a municipal ID card with their name, would interview people at randomly selected houses in each Bay ward. Asked what the municipality should do to improve service delivery, Nontombi Skepe, 54, said: “The municipality must treat us equally as residents. It’s not fair that residents, for instance, in Algoa Park are afforded better service delivery than us.”