Impact of Littering and Illegal Dumping

Lindiwe Matshiane

Mhluzi is situated in Middelburg town, whose Municipality is Steve Tshwete in Nkangala District in Mpumalanga Province.
The population of Middelburg is about 280,000. Middelburg is part of Highveld. Middelburg is a town of art, culture, and tourism.

Middelburg won Masakhane from the 1st ‘democratic dispensation’ local elections in 1995 to be the cleanest town in the whole of South Africa, it won the Masakhane award in three succession times. This was encouragement between municipalities & Communities.
Middelburg is surrounded by mines and power stations.

From around 2018 some community members started to litter, it’s because law enforcement started not to do their work to guard and monitor against littering and illegal dumping, this makes people and companies dump illegally while there’s a municipal DUMPLING site which is open from 07h00 to 17h00 during the week then on weekend 07h00 to 13h00.

Littering and illegal dumping increase the level of sickness as it affects the water streams which results in bad smells that affect the health of communities.In April 2024 the municipality was approached by MEJN about the matter, department of Environment was also involved. The municipality tried to clean though it was not satisfactory, hence as Middelburg Environmental Justice Network (MEJN) we did some water stream cleaning in partnership with the South African Water Caucus (SAWC). The municipality must clean as part of its constitutional obligations of SERVICE DELIVERY.

Recommendations are that as communities together with the municipality clean to convert some places to public parks as we want to live in a clean and healthy environment for everyone.

TOGETHER WE CAN ACHIEVE..!!!