MyPE

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Will you Shop in a Premises Where you will be Robbed and Assaulted Inside?

By

MD of EP Waste Management, Quentin van Zyl relates a few incidents of armed robbery and assault at the Arlington Tip off of Victoria Drive, Walmer in Port Elizabeth.

Imagine your business turns over well in excess of R264 Million p.a. and Armed Gangs rob and assault your clients inside your premises!

What would you do?

Would you do as the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has done at the Arlington Tip:

  • Fire outside security and contract in-house
  • Reduce the number of security staff to 25% of the former levels
  • Fail to secure the perimeter and access points to your premises
  • Empower people NOT DIRECTLY under your control to clean up inside your premises
  • Fail to give your managers the tools to do and monitor their jobs effectively
  • Fail to move with the times and implement proper waste management and recycling methods in order to increase ROI and environmental conservation
  • Allow slow smouldering fires to burn 24 hours a day inside your premises, affecting your neighbours and endangering their health….

OR

Would you do the right thing and protect your customers, your business, your staffs lives, your shareholder income by any means possible?

At a site visit to the Arlington Tip on Tuesday 7 July 2020 it became clear that the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality needs to change their way of thinking and operating at the Arlington Tip in order to secure the safety of users AND longevity of the site.

According to clients of the Arlington Tip it is not safe to visit any time after 4:00 pm during the week and definitely NOT on a Sunday; “You will be robbed,” is how they simply put it.

The amount of money being collected from ratepayers on an annual basis for Waste Management exceeds R264 Million directly via rates. In addition, private individuals and commercial waste contractors are charged per ton of waste dumped at the tip – around R186.00 per ton. According to commercial operators the amount of waste dumped by municipal trucks in the facility is far less than the amount dumped by commercial contractors who entered the site in a steady stream whilst we were on site.

Arlington Tip
Fires smoulder constantly at the Arlington Tip

Cllr Leander Kruger, DA NMB Spokesperson for Public Health said; “NMB Arlington Waste Disposal Site security upgrades require budget and political will, not more empty promises from the coalition of corruption.”

The Arlington Waste Disposal Site is the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro’s largest waste disposal facility, yet it has become a no-go area due to the increasing levels of crime in the area.

During the oversight inspection at the Site Cllr Kruger was joined by DA Eastern Cape Provincial Leader, Cllr Nqaba Bhanga, DA Shadow MEC for Finance, Retief Odendaal, MPL, DA NMB Spokesperson for Safety and Security, Cllr John Best, and DA Ward 1 Cllr Tracy Weise.

Also present were officials from the municipal directorates for safety and security and public health as well as affected business people and residents.

The DA in NMB have been raising concerns about the Arlington Site for more than a year including tabling a motion in council in June 2019 calling for urgent security upgrades. In August 2019 the safety and security portfolio committee of council conducted a site visit at Arlington.

A report was submitted to the ANC political leadership and the City Manager’s office, but the coalition of corruption government has failed to implement these recommendations. The “Interim” Mayor, Cllr Tshonono Buyeye, made promises at a hastily called site visit on Monday, 6 July 2020, that a concrete wall would be built around the facility. Such a wall is estimated to cost R46 million to construct – and has not been budgeted for at all in the 2020/21 financial year.

Some of the short, medium and long term implementable solutions that the DA proposes include:

  • Repairs to the existing cement palisade fence, with daily patrols to identify any new damage, so that immediate repairs and maintenance can take place;
  • Metro Police and Security Mobile Response Units to conduct regular, random visits at Arlington;
  • A visitors register to be implemented;
  • On site security to be increased and to conduct regular patrols, especially around dumping sites;
  • Installation of alarms/panic buttons;
  • Installation of CCTV and lighting;
  • Public Health to ensure sufficient staff to monitor access control and legislative compliance including being adequately equipped with 4×4 vehicles and TLB’s to do so;
  • To commence with the procurement process of erecting a minimum of 2 security watchtowers; and
  • To replace the existing palisade fence with a solid concrete fence – in the long term.

Kruger has forwarded these proposals once again to the city manager’s office.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.