Councillor intervenes to help residents
Way forward discussed to benefit all parties affected
On Monday 21 October, Ward 126 councillor Mike Tonkin, along with several other individuals were at Pikitup’s Panorama garden refuse dump site to address issues raised by residents.
In attendance at the meeting was Alan Fuchs from portfolio commitee Section 79’s department overlooking environment, infrastructure and service delivery; regional manger of Pikitup Majoro Letsela; Deputy Chief Whip of the DA Toni Molefe; and Linda Hlatswayo from City of Johannesburg’s Citizen Relationship and Urban Management (Crum).
As reported in the Northsider week ending 25 October , “Allens Nek residents feel neglected, targeted”, residents living nearby the site feel that they are soft targets to criminals due to Pikitup’s neglect of the dump site.
Residents allege that criminals gain access to their complexes through the Pikitup site because there is inadequate lighting and no night security.
Letsela of Pikitup did not provide a definite date but assured that lighting would be seen to soon and the need for a night shift security guard would be addressed.
During the meeting, several other issues were raised, including the huge backlog of garden refuse present on the sight, as well as the occurrence of individuals walking in and out of the site, most of them clearly not there to dump rubbish.
Tonkin requested from Letsela that Pikitup beef up the security at the site and clear out the backlog of garden refuse. Letsela responded that with clearing out the backlog of work, Pikitup would need to close the site for a week.
An official statement regarding dates as to when the site would be closed for refuse clearing is still to be communicated by Pikitup.
