employment thumb100 GroundUp reports that heaps of uncollected garbage are spilling over onto the narrow roads of the Doornbach informal settlement in Dunoon, with waste not having been collected since 30 June when the previous refuse collection contractors’ contract expired.

It is unclear whether a new contractor has been appointed by the City of Cape Town. But the SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) stopped a new contractor who had started removing waste, demanding that employees be verified as local residents registered on the Blaauwberg subcouncil’s unemployed database. Sanco Dunoon branch chair Elliot Nkohla indicated: “They are not going to work until we get the list [of the city contractor’s employees] to verify that they are Dunoon residents.” Dunoon ward councillor Messie Makuwa said “the community” was still negotiating with the new contractor over how many people from Dunoon they employed to collect refuse. Community leader Phindile Mazula, who has lived in Doornbach for 25 years, said household waste was last collected at end-June, with no refuse removal in the area since then. “It is unhygienic. It is affecting our health. The food waste is rotting. Children here do not have a place to play, it is easy for them to contract diseases,” said Mazula.


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