Address by Executive Mayor Benson Fihla at the Waste Management - Illegal Dumping Strategy event at the Gelvandale Community Hall, 23 May 2013
Program Director, Cllr Von Buchenrode,
Mayoral Committee members,
Members of the media,
Comrades,
Municipal Officials,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good day. I greet you all.
When I started my journey as the Executive Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality in March, the Deputy Executive Mayor and I took a stand that urgent steps are required to fast-track services to our residents. We have made great strides during a short time in office by initiating efforts to connect with our employees as well as outside stakeholders. We’ve launched a high level Investment Council and restored the dignity of people from Rolihlahla and Mandela Villages in Kwazakhele, where we had a housing handover ceremony.
We are confident that our continuedefforts to ensure that our workers do their work differently are bearing fruit. This is important as our suburbs and townships in the Northern Areas are filthy but I can promise you that business as usual is over.
Two weeks ago – on a Sunday – I went to an informal settlement in Helenvale to assist families who lost all their possessions after a shack fire. While assisting the families with food, appliances and clothes, I was shocked by the filth and the dirt in the area. I instructed municipal departments to prioritize the cleaning up in that area. The bulldozers are still busy as we speak. My office further assisted with the burial of Morris Campher who died during that shack fire and the private sector gave food and clothes as well. Several ANC councillors and municipal officials joined me last Monday to help with the cleaning up and I must say that they did a good job.
I have been informed that the illegal dumping strategy was started before I joined the municipality, but never before did we have a clearer understanding of how best to deal with this problem. We employed consultants a few years ago to develop a strategy and action plans to eliminate illegal dumping on both municipal and private land. Although the action plan will be implemented in phases, I am glad to inform you that we identified immediate actions that will not require large amounts of money to be realized.
The key principle of the strategy is to provide mechanisms to eliminate illegal dumping from occurring and to put measures in place on how to effectively deal with it when it happens. The feasibility report suggested that one single directorate should deal with illegal dumping and not different directorates, as it is the case currently. It is now clear that the coordination between the different departments is not effective as they don’t work well enough together to get rid of the piles and piles of rubbish in our townships.
Ladies and gentlemen, we know that even contractors working for government are responsible for illegal dumping. To deal with this problem we started last year with the issuing of fines when we caught the culprits red-handed. However we also need the public to continue to work with us by contacting our officials when the dumping takes place. I would like to make an appeal directly to each and every member of the community present at this event to act as ambassadors for a clean community and city and to raise awareness among your friends and family members of the vital importance of keeping our communities clean. All wards must have ten service delivery agents to assist in areas of, amongst others, blocked drains, leakages and illegal dumping sites. This will assist in improving the quality of life of the residents for the better. We cannot do it without you!
We will not stop. I can assure you that we will make this city much cleaner.
I also would like to remind you that there are several economic opportunities emanating from waste management to uplift our communities. In today’s newspapers the municipality is advertising tenders for refuse services contracts. Qualifying community-based refuse cleansing services can now apply to be awarded contracts. This is one of the many initiatives to deal with poverty. Various programs, aimed at employing people from the community to do litter-picking, are also in place.
I call upon all residents to walk this journey with us towards cleaner communities. Fellow councillors it is upon all of us to sustain a clean environment in all our wards. We should do that be being actively involved in all cleaning campaigns in our wards assisting the existing co-operatives in areas where they exist. We have declared Mondays as constituency days. All Mondays must be used effectively to make a meaningful contribution towards the cleaning of our areas. We acknowledge the contribution that is made by the co-operatives in some of our wards, as part of our strategy we will be launching additional co-operatives to make our communities safe and clean areas to live in. I further call upon the Public Health Directorate to launch a cleaning day once a month that will be joined by all residents, schools, business, political organizations, municipal employees and all stakeholders in the city. We must launch this programme by September this year. This must be done every last Saturday of the month. The directorate must engage all stakeholders towards the implementation of this initiative.
Ladies and gentleman, a healthy and clean environment contributes to a healthy lifestyle. Further to our plans we will be launching a cleanest ward competition as part of our strategy. The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is doing so much more to work towards the eradication of poverty, unemployment and inequality as determined by the National Democratic Revolution of the ANC.
When you see the bulldozers and the work opportunities come your way, remember that the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay is delivering on our mandate.
Ladies and gentlemen, together we can build better communities.
I thank you.
Nkosinathi Benson Fihla
Executive Mayor