Trash-busters clean up Central
Volunteers join Mandela Bay Development Agency drive to help manage public cleanliness
Time to reclaim Central. That was the rallying cry on Wednesday as representatives from the Mandela Bay Development Agency and half a dozen partners fanned into the streets to pick up trash.
Mcebisi Ncalu, the agency’s facilities and area manager, said the rain had kept some expected participants away.
However, at least 100 people had taken part, scouring the area abutted by Cuyler Street and Cuyler Cresent, Gordon Terrace, Belmont Terrace, Parliament Street and Rink Street. Representatives from the Healing Hands Foundation, the metro’s environmental health department, the ward 5 councillor’s office, the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Central Clinic joined in, as well as the Humewood police station and the Reintegration of Offenders.
Ncalu said the event had been organised in line with the agency’s agreement with the metro that it would “provide a top-up service” to help manage public cleanliness in the area.
“There was a need to claim back Central. “Certainly, the event was a success. We collected 317 black rubbish bags full of ordinary rubbish and at the same time 17 bags of recyclables.”
Ncalu said unmanaged trash in the streets was particularly bad around Havelock and Lawrence, where illegal businesses and boarding houses were often the culprits.
There was a lack of consistent refuse collection by the metro, but these illegal businesses were also not registered with the city to receive this service.
Registration should be enforced even if landlords had to recoup costs afterwards. There was also some confusion among residents on the correct collection days and education was needed in this regard.
The present stipulated penalty for litter bugs and people who dumped rubbish was between R1,000 and R2,000.
But he said he agreed that a severe crackdown on offenders was urgently needed.
“In most cases, the landlords/property owners are still refusing to sign municipal refuse collection services contracts for businesses operating on their properties.”
With the area now looking much sprucer, the aim was to maintain this standard, he said.
“We will do this by formalising the partnership that the MBDA has started with the metro’s public health department, the Central pastoral fraternity, special rates association and general community.”
Wildlife and Environment Society Algoa Bay branch committee member Tim DouglasJones, whose organisation runs monthly clean-ups of Bay beaches and other green-lung areas, said the metro needed to come out strongly on the issue.
“We are addressing the symptoms. People have to be persuaded to stop littering and dumping rubbish illegally.”
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