KNYSNA NEWS - Allister Mert and his partner Madelain Botha are among a group of people who live at and try to make a living from Knysna's notorious garbage dump.
Failure by the municipality to send garbage to a landfill over many months resulted in the formation of the huge dump alongside the railway line bordering Waterfront Drive.
Business owners, and restaurateurs and residents on the adjacent Thesen Island, have complained bitterly about the dump, which they said was causing rats and flies to proliferate at their premises and homes.
Loading garbage
Last week, a company was loading garbage into containers and finally decreasing the size of the dump.
An employee of the company refused to give its name, saying, "We are just working for our families and don't want to talk. It's now all about politics."
He indicated that the company had been contracted by Knysna Municipality.
Mert (40) and Botha (38), who were both born in Kynsna, live in a small shack about 20 metres from the dump and take cans, plastic containers and other items from it for recycling.
Scrap business
They sell the goods to a scrap business in Knysna Industrial, but are unable to buy sufficient food with their earnings.
"My heart is so sore that I don't have a job," Mert said. "Two, three years ago, I had a [municipal] contract to work on garbage trucks, but after work one day, at the taxi rank in town, special forces shot me with a rubber bullet and beat me, breaking one of my ribs."
He said the "special forces" had been sent to the rank after a policeman was stabbed by a "Rastafarian" there, and he had been severely injured in the mayhem created when they sought the culprit.
"I carried on working with the broken rib for two weeks, but then my manager said I must stay at home," Mert said. He eventually went to hospital, where it was discovered he had suffered the rib injury.
"A councillor said he would give me papers to explain why I was off work - proof from the hospital - but he never did. I could not go to the municipal office because I was in pain. Then they [municipality] fired me for no reason."
Unable to find a job
Botha has been unable to find a job for many years. The couple receive assistance only from "church people" on Sundays and Friday evenings, when they are brought a meal.
During the week they often cook discarded meat found on the dump, and, "It has made us sick," Mert said.
Rudolf van Jaarsveldt, the head of communication for the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, said a probe into the circumstances surrounding the dump had been completed.
'Non-compliance'
"... due to the non-compliance with the enforcement notices (i.e. a Compliance Notice and Directives) which was issued in terms of the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 and the National Environmental Management: Waste Act, 2008, and the ongoing pollution and mismanagement at the Waste Transfer Station, the department instituted criminal action against the Knysna Municipality and opened a criminal docket with the Knysna Saps on 6 April 2024.
"The joint investigation by the Saps and the Green Scorpions has now been completed and the docket has been referred to the National Prosecuting Authority, who will make a decision on whether or not to prosecute the Knysna Municipality and the relevant officials responsible for the Waste Transfer Station."
The Knysna Municipality said: "We have appointed a contractor who is working alongside our own trucks and staff. The challenges with the conveyor belt and hydraulic cylinder have been resolved. We are currently in the process of clearing at the transfer station, and waste is now being dumped in container bins inside the transfer station."
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