Pikitup has finally admitted they’ve been underfunded for seven years, leaving them with broken trucks, locked fuel cards, and R1.33-billion in supplier debt. Mayor Dada Morero has promised an emergency rescue plan to ring-fence funding, but waste collection across depots remains a massive headache.
How has the refuse backlog impacted your neighbourhood?
I acknowledge that we may not be as poorly affected as others in JHB, but collection has become increasingly erratic. Weeks go by without collection. It is good to understand the true reasons for this. That said, I am willing to bet many cups of coffee that this is the same for many other services in JHB, especially emergency services like firefighting, ambulances and many more.
This begs the question as to where this money has been going if it has not been paid to the services and suppliers over so many years, and who will be held accountable for this.
Hi Craig, thank you for sharing. I will pass this on to our journalists.
You may be interested in this webinar: Joburg’s Billing Crisis: What to do when the City gets it wrong
Senior metro reporter Anna Cox will be joined by Julia Fish, Executive Director of JoburgCAN, and Chantelle Gladwin-Wood, Partner in Public Law at HBGSchindlers Attorneys, to unpack what is going wrong, what residents can do, what documentation matters, when to escalate and how to protect yourself when the City gets it wrong. This session aims to be a practical guide to knowing your rights, challenging errors and holding the City accountable.