Khayelitsha residents say the City has failed to respond to their memorandum of demands to address the issue of uncollected garbage piling up in the community, among others.
This after thousands of residents marched to subcouncil 10 offices at the Khayelitsha Training Centre, calling for the City to ensure that garbage that is causing a stench and posing a health risk is collected, after the previous contractor’s term came to an end.
Community leader Ndibulele Wababa said that the silence of the City “speaks volumes” about its intention to address the issues of the masses.
“There is no change, the residents are angry.
“The seven days that we gave them had passed, and we thought they would respond as promised.
Refuse containers that are supposed to be cleaned are overflowing, and those who live near these containers are complaining of rats.
“We will escalate and do what is necessary now because they refuse to answer our demands.
We will go to the streets if need be so that they can see that we are serious. We will sit down as shack dwellers and residents and find a way forward,” he said.
Site C ward councillor Khaya Kama confirmed that the rubbish had not been collected yet.
“Residents still clean up voluntarily because they can't stay in the filth,” Kama said.
The City on Wednesday said it was aware of the current situation in affected informal settlements.
“Affected areas or parts thereof include Khayelitsha, Delft, Wallacedene, Driftsands, Fairdale, Dunoon, Atlantis, Philippi, Gugulethu and Langa. Cleansing services in these areas have unfortunately been affected since July 1. Since then, City teams have been servicing affected areas by extending their internal resources, and will continue to do so until further notice,” the City said.
It added that it was deploying cleaning workers from other programmes in the city to clear dumping hot spots, and was working over weekends to address the situation on the ground.
However, there were not enough staff available to compensate for the absence of normal planned programmes. The chairperson of Subcouncil 10, Delmaine Cottee, said: “The subcouncil will be responding to the memorandum in due course.”
Cape Times