The Democratic Alliance (DA) has submitted an invitation to the Mayor of Emthanjeni Municipality, Cllr Gladwell Nkumbi, for a municipal delegation to accompany councillors and community members on a tour of De Aar to see to what extent the town is drowning in refuse, in a hope that this will shock Emthanjeni into action.
Not only is the dumpsite dysfunctional and in violation of national standards, but it has also become inaccessible due to the vast amount of refuse blocking the entrance road. Even the municipality has been caught red-handed offloading refuse into the veld because it cannot access the dump.
For the past two weeks, the municipality has presented a number of excuses as to why it cannot clean up the mess. The DA has established that the entire Emthanjeni municipality, which is made up of De Aar, Hanover and Britstown, in a range of over 120 kilometers, has only one operational tipper truck and one operational TLB to assist not only the refuse unit but also the electrical, water and sanitations units.
The municipality clearly has a critical lack of resources to perform its duties and basic services have collapsed.
Individuals are dumping waste in the veld. The veld in the Ward 5 area is particularly filthy.
The skateboard park, meant to promote sport amongst the youth, is littered in refuse, including carcasses of small animals. The area behind the swimming pool and the hill that falls within the grounds of a nature reserve, is polluted with piles of dumped refuse. Neighborhoods across town are dirty.
Only by taking an honest look at the state of the once proud town of De Aar and acknowledging Emthanjeni’s failures, can the municipality attempt to rebuild broken services.