Frustrated Dunoon residents block road with rubbish they’ve picked up

Frustrated by a lack of response from authorities to problems of filthy living conditions and illegal dumping, residents of Dunoon in Cape Town cleared a blocked drain, picked up rubbish from a dump and then blocked a public road with the trash.

Residents of Tulip Road picked up trash and cleared a blocked drain, then used the rubbish to block the street on Monday 20 January.

Nosiyasbonga Mbayisi, who was one of those who took part, said residents had started reporting the illegal dumping and blocked drains to the City of Cape Town in November last year but nothing had happened.

“We have helped them by cleaning free of charge. They must just come collect,” she said.

But she could not provide GroundUp with a reference number for the residents’ complaints.

Mbayisi said after 15 families living in the street had cleared the area there were fewer flies.

Mayco Member for Waste services, Xanthea Limberg, said the City would send a team to the area to assess the problem.

She said the volume of illegal dumping is so great that the City had to prioritise the clearing of areas in terms of health risks. Higher priority was given where dumped material included food waste, or was near a school or play area.

Dumps of builders’ rubble, she said, were lower priority and might only be cleared twice a year. There were about 1,000 large illegal dump spots across the City, said Limberg.

She urged residents to report problems in their area.

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