After months of being vilified and attacked on all media fronts regarding the closure of the Luipaardsvlei Landfill Site, near Sinqobile in Mogale City, the Mogale City Local Municipality is reopening the facility for public use after following due processes as managed by the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The Landfill Site was a turned into a battlefield between the warrying factions of Zama Zama’s and this resulted in the facility being gutted by a raging fire and that was further intensified by strong winds. This led to its closure after the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development visited the facility and consequently completing an oversight on the state of the facility.
The facility remained closed for the past six months, since August 2024, and has a result affected both the municipality and public, mainly the Water Reclaimers who earned a living by collecting and turning reusable and recyclable materials from the facility into their sustainable income.
The municipality was affected immensely because this disruption led to waste collection backlog resulting in illegal dumping across Mogale City Central Business District (CBD), townships and rural areas mushrooming rapidly turning the city into a man-made dumping site.
The city has since incurred financial burden as the result of the closure of the facility because, the Integrated Environmental Management Department (DIEM), responsible for the city’s holistic environment management and refuse collection and disposal, sought refugee in the neighbouring Rand West and Merafong City Local Municipalities at a cost of R1,4 million a month with a direct daily refuse compactors trucks travelling distances of more than 48km’s.
During the facility reopening ceremony, on Wednesday, 12 February 2025, the Executive Mayor Lucky Sele was excited and over the moon that the burden that the community had being facing for the past six months on illegal dumping will now be a thing of the past as the services at the facility has resumed and are in full swing.
“We are elated that the Landfill Site is now in full operation and the issues of illegal dumping will soon be addressed. We are also happy that the reopening of the Landfill Site will also be coupled with the clean-up campaigns which is a good thing, and this shows that the municipality is taking illegal dumping’s seriously, and we are doing our best to keeping our city clean. It is important that we support you and I’m here to pledge my support in making sure that we protect our facility from criminal activities”.
Executive Manager responsible for DIEM mentioned that he was happy that the facility has been reopened and in full operation, however, he cautioned that ‘we want the Landfill Site to remain open and not to be shut down again by making sure that the Landfill Site remains compliant and remains within the operations that are guided by the Licence not outside the ambit the of the License requirements. We have immensely improved security and there is no semblance of illegal miners within the surroundings of the facility.
The MMC Livingstone Mkruquli was equally elated and said the DIEM will drop the ball and not disappoint the entire municipality and community of Mogale City by allowing the mishaps to happen again. He said his department has learnt a lesson and that the closure of the Landfill Site will not happen again as security measures are in full force, making sure the facility is well equipped for any eventuality.
As part of securing the facility fire hydrants and fire breaks have been installed to extinguish any fire outbreaks. The high risk security has been deployed at the facility and the construction of cell and drainage system in phase 5 project will resume urgently.
Sipho None
Soweto Sunrise News
