eThekwini councillor condemns alleged sewage dumping by municipal workers
eThekwini Ward 35 councillor Bradley Singh commended the resident who took the video of municipal staff allegedly dumping black bags of sewage in Mount Moreland Conservancy near Umdloti on Wednesday.
Singh said that this demonstrates that every resident in the city has a civic responsibility and obligation to ensure eThekwini remains the best in the country.
The video clip purported that eThekwini municipal employees dumping bags of sewage.
Singh was reacting to the 59-second video, titled Irresponsible eThekwini Municipality, with a man speaking over the video recording saying: “I just caught all these okes dumping. Honestly, it smells like sewage, smells like raw sewage.”
The video shows two men stepping over a steel roadside crash barrier. Two other men are standing next to the truck. Two of them have blue overall jackets with the EWS logo on them. EWS is the acronym for eThekwini Water and Sanitation; this department has now been renamed the Cleansing and Solid Waste (CSW) Unit.
One of the Mount Moreland residents, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the conservancy directly feeds into the Umdloti River.
“They are effectively dumping raw, unfiltered sewage into the Umdloti River - great for our beaches that already have a massively high E.coli count! Residents are up in arms over this. Vehicles that drove past the site reeked of sewage,” he said.
The man reverses his vehicle and while recording the video, he speaks to the driver of the truck, which has an eThekwini Municipality logo on it.
The man tells the driver that what he is doing is illegal.
The driver says: “I am going to take it.”
The man asks the driver for his name but receives no reply.
“You’re going to go on TV. You (are) illegally dumping. What is that, raw sewage? Where did you get that sewage?
The truck driver replies: “Coming from Canelands.”
The man says: “You don’t dump it here. This is my house. You are going now because I caught you. Take your rubbish and put it back. Take it out of the bush and go. I am going to watch you... This is bull s***... This is why this country is falling apart. This is f****** unbelievable put it back.”
IOL shared the video clip with the municipality on Thursday. The municipality continued its investigation into the incident on Friday.
Singh described the video posted as “really disturbing”, especially when municipal officials who are there to ensure that municipal by-laws are implemented take “human faeces” and dump them in a bush that is close to a river.
“Eventually these will be washed into the river and ultimately make their way to the oceans, affecting E.coli levels. This behaviour by these officials must be condemned and the CSW department must immediately initiate disciplinary proceedings. The department must make the outcomes public and send a strong message to municipal staff that the municipality will not tolerate this type of conduct,” Singh said.
On Thursday, eThekwini Municipality spokesperson, Gugu Sisilana, cautioned against the circulation of videos on social media that were likely to cause unnecessary excitement and confusion among the public.
Sisilana said that recording and circulating a video on social media without reporting it through official channels did not assist anyone but only led to speculative reporting.
“It must also be noted that some contractors wear municipal-branded overalls, and their trucks/vehicles bear the municipality’s logo. Therefore, without the full names and surnames of the people in the video or a vehicle registration number bearing an “NDM” number plate, it is difficult to conclude that the people seen in the alleged video are indeed staff employed by eThekwini Municipality,” she said.
Residents must report those who illegally dump waste by calling the Cleansing and Solid Waste helpline on the following number 031 3118804 or by emailing DSW@durban.gov.za
zainul.dawood@inl.co.za