City of eThekwini says refuse is collected in this settlement every Monday, but we saw no sign of a rubbish truck

Uncollected rubbish is piling up along the road in Cato Crest in Durban. Photo: Tsoanelo Sefoloko

• Rubbish is piling up along the main road through the informal settlement of Cato Crest in eThekwini.
• Residents say it hasn’t been collected for months.
• The City of eThekwini says rubbish is collected every Monday.
• But when GroundUp spent the day there on Monday, no municipal rubbish truck came.

Mounds of rubbish litter the main road through Cato Crest in eThekwini. Residents of the informal settlement say the municipality has not collected rubbish for months.

Cato Crest is less than 10 kilometres from the city centre and has more than 1,000 shacks, according to community leader Philani Mkhize. Many of the shacks are attached to each other, with no space to dump refuse. Families carry their rubbish in bags to the main road which crosses the settlement and dump it there.

In the past, residents have complained about a lack of toilets. But there are now mobile toilets on the main road which residents say are cleaned every Monday.

However, rubbish collection is a problem, they say. They say municipal rubbish trucks only come to neighbouring Mayville and Cato Manor, not to Cato Crest.

When the rubbish piles up too high on the main road and taxis can no longer use the road, residents sometimes have to hire bakkies to offload the refuse at the municipal dump.

When GroundUp asked municipal spokesperson Gugu Sisilana about rubbish collection, she said the City of eThekwini trucks come to Cato Crest every Monday. But on Monday, GroundUp spent the day in the settlement and did not see the truck there, though municipal workers did come to collect rubbish in Mayville.

On Tuesday, the rubbish was still on the main road through Cato Crest, next to a school and a crèche.

Mkhize said residents had been asked only to dump rubbish in four areas designated by the community. “We have decided to secure the areas where the residents can dump their refuse, so that refuse won’t be scattered everywhere. But in some places we are failing because of our limited dumping areas so the rubbish ends up overflowing.”

Asked about municipal rubbish collection, Mkhize said: “Maybe they are cleaning in other areas, not in our area.”

Angeline Mazibuko, who lives on a corner next to the main road, said families dump next to her house. “I have decided to let the community dump next to my house because I have realised that they don’t have any places to dump their refuse.”

PR councillor Hlengiwe Shozi (DA) said rubbish should be collected twice a week. “We know that the area is overpopulated, so we need to come up with a strategy to make sure that refuse is collected,” said Shozi.

Sisilana said a City team held a clean-up in the area in April. “In the same afternoon, residents had started dumping waste illegally. It is therefore not true that waste hasn’t been collected for months and months.”

“Waste is collected every week in this area. Collection day is Monday, and we have added Wednesdays and Saturdays as top-up service. The area sees a lot of illegal dumping from residents, even though there are scheduled collection days. Some residents also use the black refuse bags to dispose of human waste,” said Sisilana.

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