The Democratic Alliance (DA) in eThekwini on Wednesday called on the Human Settlement and Infrastructure support committee to confirm the number of new Durban Solid Waste (DSW) trucks received and the subsequent geographic allocations, SurgeZirc report.
This was made known in a statement issued by the DA requesting “for a closeout report on the procurement of these newly acquired specialized vehicles that have failed to reach eThekwini residents timeously and insist on an update on the existing DSW fleet”.
Recall that the DA early in the year called for the prioritisation of optimised waste management in the Municipality, and yet the unit shows no significant improvement.
According to the DSW report, a whopping 11 out of 19 trucks for the precincts of Umhlanga, Verulam, and Tongaat are broken and not in service.
“The promise of improved service delivery, when the new trucks were touted to arrive in June this year, has not materialised. In true ANC style, the goal post for the delivery of the long-awaited addition to the DSW fleet had been shifted to August 2021.
“Delivery of these specialized, imported vehicles was supposed to alleviate the delays in the waste collection which has plagued DSW in many suburbs for years. There is no clear explanation as to why several areas are still crippled by sporadic waste collections especially during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the DA said.
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The DA in its statement revealed that residents expressed immense frustration at uncollected bin bags being ripped and scattered by dogs, monkeys, and vagrants.
“Equally frustrating is the refusal by DSW to clean the debris, although this is occasioned by delays emanating from themselves.
“It is unacceptable that the ANC-led Municipality has allowed this state of affairs to unfold time and again resulting in some very irate residents who have taken to dumping their bags outside the local Verulam Sizakala centre.
“The DA will be calling for a closeout report on the procurement of these newly acquired specialized vehicles that have failed to reach eThekwini residents timeously and insist on an update on the existing DSW fleet,” the statement reads.
