Makana Municipality embarked on cleaning up, and the clearing of illegal dump sites in Joza on 27 August 2020.
The municipal front end loader has been out of commission since March 2020. In other words, since the start of the lockdown, the municipality was unable to use it to clean the dump sites.
We hired plant machinery, including a TLB (tractor loader backhoe – commonly known as a “digger”) and two tipper trucks to start cleaning up illegal dump sites while we waited for the municipality’s front-end loader to be fixed.
This was done as one of the pillars of Covid-19 management: waste management is key to ensuring communities are living in a healthy environment.
Makana’s Supply Chain Management sourced local contractors to do the clean-up and a local SMME was appointed. The project was supported by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Youth Jobs in Waste programme.
The clearing of dump sites will resume next week once the municipal front-end loader is back.
Makana’s Finance Department has allocated an operational budget to tackle all illegal dump sites in Joza for the next three months. Beyond that, the municipality will maintain the sites twice a month.
- Kelello Makgoka , Director of Public Safety and Community Services, Makana Municipality
