Rubbish piles up on Gqeberha streets as municipality struggles to fuel collection trucks

Piles of uncollected rubbish and overflowing sewage have been strewn across the streets of Nelson Mandela Bay since the end of November.

The municipality says challenges with its new digital payment system have delayed petrol purchases for council trucks.

Meanwhile, thousands of residents have been complaining about the filth. GroundUp recently visited Govan Mbeki township near the R75 Uitenhage Road and Old Uitenhage Road where rubbish has been piling up. Many people have resorted to emptying their refuse bins along the busy roads and burning the rubbish.

Nothandekile Dipa from Govan Mbeki said his rubbish had not been collected for four weeks. “Our grandchildren’s disposable nappies are in my two wheelie bins and the smell is unbearable. The flies buzz when it’s very hot.”

He said that most household bins get full weekly during the festive season. “This municipality is very disappointing. We couldn’t enjoy Christmas lunch under these smelly conditions. We had to ask our children to go and empty these bins in open fields,” he said.

Sipho Ntsondwa, chairperson of the Nelson Mandela Bay Informal Settlements Forum, said rubbish had not been collected in Westville since November. “We have a problem with rats because of illegal dumping. This is made even worse because there is rubbish all over the place. We appeal to our municipality to quickly resolve this problem. Our children are playing in these illegal dumpsites,” he said.