Cape Town’s executive director of urban waste management, Luzuko Mdunyelwa, is to be placed on suspension following allegations of bribery within the City of Cape Town administration and ongoing waste collection service delivery challenges in several areas.
According to the Daily Maverick, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis proposed Mdunyelwa’s suspension at a closed council meeting on Monday, which the council approved.
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Despite spending approximately R500 million on contractors for township waste clearance from July 2021 to June 2023, the City received 18 902 complaints. Extortion rackets in communities exacerbated the situation, prompting contractor withdrawals due to safety concerns.
Various visits by the Daily Maverick to Crossroads and Nyanga have confirmed the severity of the waste crisis. It reports overflowing trash containers and uncollected waste resulting from illegal dumping and littering.
Following public complaints and service delivery protests, in July 2023, the City moved waste management in-house under Grant Twigg, Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for urban waste management.
This new approach reportedly contained insourcing cleaning in informal settlements, a three-year community project, job creation and educational initiatives to improve environmental hygiene.
However, not all contractor agreements were terminated, and complaints about uncollected rubbish and dirty streets continue in areas like Dunoon, Witsand in Atlantis and Samora Machel in Philippi.
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The in-house service shift strained City resources due to a lack of sufficient trucks and personnel, and a leaked forensic investigation report in December 2023 implicated Twigg and Mdunyelwa in the waste management collapse.
As per IOl, the report alleges unauthorised changes to the waste management model by Mdunyelwa and a lack of due diligence. This led to the reinstatement of external service providers.
After the report was leaked, opposition parties demanded Twigg’s dismissal, but Hill-Lewis defended him based on ongoing efforts to improve service delivery.
Twigg told Daily Maverick last week that inadequate contractor management has long been the cause of cleaning delivery issues in both formal and informal areas; this was the case even before any forensic examination.
In response to inquiries regarding the collapse, Hill-Lewis said that he was also becoming increasingly worried about the city and its citizens not receiving value for their money.
Hill-Lewis acknowledged the need for better value from the City’s waste management spending and said that the desired outcome is cleaner informal settlements with consistent and dependable weekly collection, and in some cases, more than once per week.
Although he acknowledged that ‘it requires careful preparation and planning, which was not properly done the first time around,’ he refuted claims that administrators were impeding the new internal project.
Questions about potential financial benefits received by City administrators from contractors have not yet been answered.
City spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo acknowledged the challenges in urban waste management and the City’s efforts to mitigate the impact on residents.
‘The City is aware of the ongoing urban waste management service delivery challenges, and alternative arrangements have been made to mitigate any negative impact on residents,’ Tyhalibongo said.
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Picture: City of Cape Town / Facebook