July 25, 2005
By Lucky Sindane
SIX old landfill sites in Soweto have been turned from unsightly dumps into people-friendly places. All six are now recreational areas that can be used by the community.
Pikitup, the City's waste management company, has spent about R3,7-million over the past four months on the transformation.
The dump sites - at Immink, Noordgesig, Sabela Street, Diepkloof Zone 2, Mvubu, and Armitage and Klipvalley roads - had been abandoned and were posing environmental health hazards until Pikitup decided to take action.
Now, however, families can use them as picnic spots while the more energetic can play football on the fields.
Celebrating their new playground, young soccer players with Pikitup's managing director, Siva Pillay, and member of the mayoral committee for municipal services, Brian Hlongwa
"I'm happy that the lives of people who live in Soweto are improving," said Brian Hlongwa, the mayoral member for municipal services, at the launch of the Mvubu rehabilitated site on Friday, 21 July.
"By removing the dump, we restore people's dignity ... If you went to the northern suburbs and told people they were going to have a landfill site next to their homes, they would kill you."
The Mvubu site in Orlando West has been converted into a green area, with its 60 000 square metres covered by 200mm thick topsoil and planted with Kikuyu grass.
"Today we are standing on what used to be a landfill site," Pikitup managing director Siva Pillay said. "Out of rubbish comes something. There is nothing that goes into the bin that is not turned into something."
Not only health hazards, the old dumps were eyesores, pointed out Pikitup business development executive Francois van Aswegen. He said the rehabilitation programme was aimed at dealing with these concerns.
"It is Pikitup's objective to ensure a safe and healthy environment through the proper rehabilitation of old dump sites that were abandoned and not properly managed in the past."
The sites were rehabilitated according to guidelines set down by the national Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.
Pikitup has also rehabilitated two garden sites - one in Eldorado Park and the other in Lenasia - at a cost of R700 000. "These are convenient for residents who always do gardening," said Dick Mulder, the manager of Pikitup's garden sites.
Garden dump sites are used for garden refuse only.
Referring to the prevalence of garden sites outside Soweto, Hlongwa said, "Something is very wrong with our society when almost half of the population of the city lives in Soweto but we only have four garden sites here, while areas like Lenasia and Eldorado Park have 12 garden sites."
Van Aswegen echoed his sentiments, saying, "There is still a lot to do but we are satisfied with the progress we have made thus far."
Pikitup planned to continue introducing new methods and initiatives that would further enhance attempts to transform Johannesburg into a clean, world class African City, he added.
The dump and garden sites rehabilitation programmes were just two of the initiatives Pikitup had undertaken recently.
"But to achieve all our objectives in cleaning up the city and establishing an attractive environment for all of its citizens and visitors, we need the support and co-operation of everyone," Van Aswegen said.
"It is a collective effort that will pave the way for the future."
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