Cape Town mayor moves to suspend director following collapse of waste management

Filth is piling up in Cape Town townships following the collapse of waste collection services. (Photo: Velani Ludidi)

By Velani Ludidi

22 Jan 2024

The executive director responsible for waste management in Cape Town will be placed on suspension in the coming days following the collapse of waste management in areas of the city.

There is a row between the City of Cape Town mayoral committee and some of the municipality’s senior administration, with bribery allegations, following the collapse of waste collection in the townships.

Daily Maverick can reveal that a special closed council meeting was called on Monday morning where mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis tabled a motion to place the executive director: urban waste management, Luzuko Mdunyelwa, on suspension.

This has been approved by the council but councillors who were present said they could not comment because it was a confidential meeting.

During the meeting, Hill-Lewis confirmed that contractors were hired to clean the filthy townships across Cape Town, at a cost of about R500-million. Contracts started in July 2021 until June 2023 and were running month to month. However, rubbish continued to pile up in and around the Mother City. The city has also had to send in its own staff to carry out the cleaning in areas where contractors were hired to do the job.

Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis in Cape Town on 23 August 2022. (Photo: Gallo Images / ER Lombard)

The municipality had received 18,902 complaints, 38% of which were from areas being serviced by contractors between July 2021 and June 2023.

Extortion rackets in some communities compound this, leading contractors to ditch contracts owing to concerns for their workers’ safety.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Cape Town waste collection companies ditch contracts following deadly shooting, threats and extortion

Cleaning and waste collection in informal settlements have largely relied on external service providers.

Daily Maverick visited Crossroads and Nyanga, where open fields have become dumping grounds. The city has set up rubbish containers, but they are overflowing. Crossroads is one of the areas affected by extortionists threatening refuse trucks, and services had to be withdrawn.

In July 2023, after noticing that the municipality was not getting value for its money following complaints from the public and service delivery protests, these services were moved in-house under mayoral committee member for urban waste management Grant Twigg.

Daily Maverick has seen the new approach and it includes:

Pilot the insourcing of the cleaning of waste from informal settlements;

Three-year community-based project, specifically residents residing in informal settlements;

Opportunity for residents to take responsibility for their own communities;

Job creation in informal areas – 3,308 work opportunities;

Improve the informal settlement community environment in terms of cleanliness and hygiene, reduce pollution, littering and the effect of illegal dumping; and

Enhance education of partnership between the city and informal settlements.

Contractors in areas such as Dunoon, Witsand in Atlantis and Samora Machel in Philippi still have active contracts, since not all of them were cancelled. The city still receives complaints from these areas about rubbish that is not collected, as well as about filthy streets.

Areas that have been affected include Kanana in Gugulethu, Joe Slovo, some areas in Philippi, Mitchells Plain and Manenberg.

The move to use in-house services, according to sources inside the municipality, did not receive support from some senior administrators, with allegations that they were receiving kickbacks from contractors. The move also stretched the city’s resources because there are not enough refuse trucks and personnel to carry out the project.

Filth is piling up in Cape Town townships following the collapse of waste collection. (Photo: Velani Ludidi)

This corner in Crossroads has become a dumping site for residents as refuse trucks cannot go in due to extortion rackets. (Photo: Velani Ludidi)

Forensic report

A forensic investigation report, tabled in December 2023, into the collapse of waste-collection services in townships across Cape Town pointed to Twigg and Mdunyelwa as being responsible for the collapse.

The report, which was tabled at the last council meeting in December, says Twigg and Mdunyelwa undertook the formation of a new “in-house” waste management model without delegated authority.

IOL reported that the report says city manager Lungelo Mbandazayo became aware of the pilot project and after it was found that Mdunyelwa had changed the model without any proper due diligence, he instructed that the external service providers be called back.

Following the leak of the report to the media, opposition parties have been calling for Twigg to be sacked.

Last week, Twigg told Daily Maverick there has been a problem of cleansing delivery for quite some time in both informal settlements and formal areas because of poor contractor management, and this has been the case before any forensic investigation.

“This effectively meant that the city was not getting value for its money as we are spending huge amounts for these services. Any proposals or suggestions from my office are to remedy any situation affecting the delivery of services to our residents,” he said.

“My political responsibility is to make sure services are rendered and I will propose different interventions when and where required to ensure delivery.”

Hill-Lewis defended Twigg when opposition parties called for his firing, following the leak of the report that put him at the centre of the collapse of waste collection.

At the meeting on Monday, the mayor bemoaned the cancellation of the contracts of service providers at a short notice, which led to the city facing legal action and also not having measures in place to carry the load as a result of the cancellation of the contracts.

Mdunyelwa has seven days to respond as to why he should not be placed under suspension while there is an investigation into his conduct.

Responding to questions about the collapse of waste collection, Hill-Lewis said he was also growing more and more concerned that the city, and most importantly its residents, were not getting value for money.

“That we were paying over hundreds of millions for a service, but then had to constantly top it up with our own staff anyway,” he said.

“The desired outcome is clear: Cleaner informal settlements with regular and reliable weekly collection, and in some cases more than once a week.”

He denied claims that the new in-house project was being blocked by administrators, but admitted that “it requires careful preparation and planning, which was not properly done the first time around”.

The mayor also confirmed that he had heard the rumours that administrators, including directors, were benefiting financially from the hiring of contractors.

“I have heard this rumour, of course, but I have received no specific complaint or any evidence. If any is forthcoming it will certainly be investigated.”

The mayor had not yet responded to additional queries sent on Monday.

Questions sent to the city’s municipal manager include whether he was pleased with the way contractors carried out their duties and whether he, as the city manager, and other administrators have received any financial benefit or gratuity in any form from the service providers over the years. He did not respond to the questions. Instead, city spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo said:

“The city is aware of the ongoing Urban Waste Management service delivery challenges, and alternative arrangements have been made to mitigate any negative impact on residents.” DM

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Forensic report