Operation Shanyela targets dirty Hillbrow streets
The Hillbrow area poses a huge challenge to the City, its entities and departments, in terms of municipal service delivery. The very high concentration of people residing in, and practicing their businesses in this part of the City, places a huge burden on services such as waste management, water, stormwater and wastewater. It is estimated that 800 000 people commute to and from the Inner City on a daily basis. More than 900 tons of illegally dumped waste is removed from the Inner City per month which includes street sweeping as well as well as the clearing of illegal dumping spots.
Pikitup keeps the Inner City clean on a two shift basis and utilizes more than 700 staff and more than 30 waste removal vehicles to do this job. Unfortunately, by the time the first shift has finished their cleaning rounds, the city streets are filthy again, dumpsters often dumping waste behind the backs of cleaners as they clean the streets.
Operation Shanyela, which means "sweep it up", is a joint venture between Pikitup, the City's environmental Health Department, the JMPD and the Johannesburg Road Agency. The campaign targeted Pretoria and Kotze streets, due to the unacceptably level of littering and illegal dumping taking place in these streets. Although the campaign, which took place between 3 December and 14 December, primarily focussed on waste management, especially illegal dumping and littering in front of shops on pavements, it also targeted problem areas such as stormwater drain blockages and potholes in roads. It further aimed at enforcing the law in terms of bylaw infringements, and over this period. In the region of 90 fines and warnings were given by the JMPD to people who violated city by-laws.
One of the biggest challenges for Pikitup in the Inner City is to ensure that each business has access to a formal waste service, in other words, have a Pikitup waste bin(s), in which waste is deposited and put of for collection on waste collection days. What is often found is that businesses and shop owners, either do not want to pay for a waste service or they do not have enough waste receptacles to discard of all their waste, and therefore dump their waste on street corners. In order to alleviate this problem, Pikitup, as part of the campaign, conducted a bin census to find out exactly what the needs of businesses and shops are in terms of waste receptacles. In the two week period, 164 waste bins were issued to tenants, 513 tons of waste was removed, while more than a 1000 hawkers and shop tenants received education on waste matters.
An education campaign was also conducted amongst the hawkers as well as the shop tenants in an attempt to eradicate the practice of illegal dumping and littering in the vicinity where business is conducted. Some shop owners would, for instance, sweep the waste out of their shops, directly into stormwater drains, which in turn, not only blocks the storm water system, but also pollutes river courses downstream.
The short term goals of the campaign have been successfully met i.e:
Bin census completed
All shops and business in the targeted streets now have the appropriate number of waste bins
All the targeted shops and business are being billed for waste services received
The majority of hawkers and shop tenants have been educated around waste management issues
The need to abide to city by-laws has been accentuated to the target group
The area is much cleaner than before the start of the campaign
However, sustained cleanliness of these areas can only be attained with a continued effort and commitment from all role players. In this regard, similar, follow up actions will be held in the same streets to ensure that it does not fall back into its former state of filthiness. Law enforcement in these areas will also be increased to ensure that by-law infringements, such as illegal dumping, are dealt with harshly.
Our plea to all citizens is to help us stop illegal dumping in its tracks, to report the culprits to the City's law enforcement units and to do your bit in ensuring a clean and healthy environment for all.
All queries can be directed to the Pikitup Call Centre on (011) 712 5200 or Joburg Connect on (011) 375 5555; or visit the Pikitup website on www.pikitup.co.za
For any further media enquiries please contact:
Marius de Villiers
Pikitup Johannesburg (Pty) Ltd
Tel: 011 712 5361
Cell: 082 855 9246
E mail: mariusdevilliers@pikitup.co.za
Pansy Jali
Pikitup Johannesburg (Pty) Ltd
Tel: 011 712 5373
Cell: 079 526 9299
E mail: pansyjali@pikitup.co.za
