Rubbish piles up in the Durban CBD on August 17 after DSW workers embarked on a go-slow after disagreements with the city regarding overtime payments. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo/African News Agency (ANA)
Durban - Ratepayers in the eThekwini Metro area are likely to experience more woes with Durban Solid Waste, following an investigation into the state of the city’s waste management agency by the DA.
Findings from the probe, which led the DA to speak to general workers, managers and area co-ordinators from Durban Solid Waste, also led them to believe that DSW’s depots in the region have collapsed.
The DA’s Sakhile Mngadi, ward 33 councillor, spoke to IOL on Friday.
One of the issues found, Mngadi said, was that of DSW general workers who were asked to drive trucks but did not receive compensation for it.
He said some workers drove voluntarily for almost five years without a change to their work contracts.
“Many vacancies have not been filled due to poor HR management and widespread internal conflict: general workers have volunteered as drivers since 2018 due to vacancies. They were excluded when the vacancies were filled after the agreement was that they volunteered as a programme of development but were not considered.
“They opted to go (on) being general workers and now there is a driver shortage,” Mngadi said in the statement.
IOL sources inside DSW revealed that the Chatsworth and Springfield Park depots were almost non operational for a few years, causing a backlog in the system.
A long-time employee of DSW said it was sad to see the organisation in such a state and suspects management doesn’t have a plan to fix it.
Because of the collapse at Clairwood, Chatsworth and Springfield Park depots, all the refuse that is collected in eThekwini has to be transported to Illovo.
This, according to the source, has resulted in around four hours being wasted daily.
“We are now spending more time travelling than we do working ... obviously, you can imagine what our depots end up looking like. In Chatsworth, they work until 10am then stop because there’s not enough trucks.
“In Springfield Park it's the same story,” the source said.
The commute to Illovo was the reason some employees had to work overtime but the DSW management put a different spin on that story, the source said, adding that the employees were made to seem like they were greedy when in reality, the system is broken.
Mngadi added that as of September 12, the situation deteriorated, which would likely result in serious health consequences.
“Chatsworth is on the verge of collapse.”
He warned that about 55 000kg of business and domestic waste was not collected on that day, a figure he predicted would double every day, unless the area was declared an emergency disaster area.
He said there was a warning that the potential backlog could be 3000 tons by Friday.
IOL contacted the Municipality to ask what is been done about the state of affairs, mentioned by Mngadi, at DSW.
We asked why the volunteer truck drivers have not been given proper contracts for their positions and why the City and DSW haven’t come up with a solution to cut out the commute to Illovo depot.
We also asked if they think driving to Ilovo at a time when fuel is such an expensive commodity, a good use of the taxpayers money.
We are awaiting their response.
Meanwhile, former Durban mayor, Zandile Gumede, who was accused of fraud, money laundering and racketeering in a DSW scandal worth around R300 million, pleaded not guilty.
Her co-accused pleaded not guilty as well.
IOL