The City’s Urban Waste Management Directorate has temporarily suspended its services in Manenberg due to ongoing gun violence.
Image: Tracey Adams / Independent Media (Archive)
Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has suspended refuse collection services due to ongoing gang violence in Manenberg.
Community members said they were informed on Thursday morning about the suspension.
In a statement, the City informed residents that waste collection services in the area have been suspended until further notice.
This is due to high rates of gang violence in the area.
Acting mayco member for Urban Waste Management, Siseko Mbandezi, said the refuse collection staff have to work in the crossfire between gangs regularly, and this is presenting an unacceptable risk to their safety.
“Over the coming week, Urban Waste Management officials will seek to urgently engage relevant stakeholders around possible interventions to assist with the return of services to the area. Updates will be released in due course.
“I assure the residents of the area that this decision has not been taken lightly. Staff members working in the area have shown their commitment to serving the community under very unsafe conditions in recent years.
“The City will explore new strategies for servicing the area that can improve the safety of those who provide services.”
The City asked residents to refrain from dumping for as long as they can.
“The area will be prioritised to have their bins emptied as soon as possible. The City will provide updates when these are available,” Mbandezi said.
“Please ensure your bins are out and available for collection when requested.”
Manenberg Community Policing Forum (CPF) deputy chairperson, Vanessa Adriaanse, said the situation is bad in the area.
“We don’t blame the City for not wanting to come into the communities with the situation in this place, because one needs to keep in mind that the workers need to put food on the table for their families, but one can never expect someone to stand up in the morning and go to work knowing that the bullet might hit you because of the ongoing senseless shootings that are taking place.
“Manenberg police station is understaffed, which makes it difficult to conquer such a war.
“This year, there have been quite a few murders. They are shooting daily. There's no time specifically speaking about the shootings, we don't know what is making these gangsters so heartless because they don't even care anymore whether it's day or night. These thugs take advantage. We went to the city, and we appealed to the government to suspend load shedding in Manenberg because of the extent of the shootings."