Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsIllegal dumping in SebokengIllegal dumping on open ground is still commonly practiced by businesses, big andsmall, hospitals and individuals. The municipality itself dumped illegally in the pastand it is not quite clear that it does not do so now. The legacy of past illegal dumpingstill imposes on people’s lives. Most of it was dumped in or next to black areas andEmfuleni’s IDP review says the council has picked up 16,858 m 3 of waste mixed withearth but 57,192 m 3 is “still lying throughout the townships region” [2008/9: 79].This is part of the history of apartheid’s neglect of black townships. Many of theillegal dumping sites were created when township authorities did not provide servicesor infrastructure remotely comparable to what was provided in the white towns.According to the 2006/7 IDP, the former black local council – unseated in the VaalUprising – “used Kwaggastroom” in Zone 7 and a dump and burrow pits in Zone20. Sharpeville was also a site of illegal dumping “since the early 1980s” [122]. VEJAmembers have observed ongoing illegal dumping in Kwaggastroom.The Golden Highway runs alongside Sebokeng. Over a stretch of at least five kilometres,the land between the highway and the houses has been used as a dumping ground forhospital and industrial waste as well as general household waste. At the northern endof this stretch, wetland vegetation is discoloured and indicates severe leachate pollutionin the groundwater. At the southern end, in Zone 20, is the old dump that now formsa hillock. The old burrow pits pock mark the ground over a wide area leading up tothis dump. The entire area was evidently used for indiscriminate dumping over a longperiod and almost certainly started before the era of the black local council. A ditchcut behind one of Iscor’s former hostels channels a stream through this area. Rubbishis exposed in its bank to the depth of about a metre.Being illegal, none of this appears on maps and plans but everyone knows about it.Nevertheless, a part of this dumping ground was graded over and RDP houses builton top of the rubbish. Sello Ditheko is a long term resident of Zone 20 and has livedin one of these houses for the last 12 years. Sometime in the late 1980s, he recalls “achemical syrup which left a strong smell” being dumped. In front of his house, theburrow pits are now being filled in. Ditheko had recently seen new waste brought inand says the municipality is flattening the waste into the pits and then covering it. Itappears that this is a mixture of earth and waste removed from other illegal dumpingsites by the municipality.Wasting the Nation - groundWork - 161 -