Don’t refuse refuse charges - Pikitup
Joburg residents have to continue paying for refuse removal even though their bins are not being cleared.
|||Johannesburg - Joburg residents have to continue paying for refuse removal even though their bins are not being cleared, and they may not refuse to pay.
This was the message on Wednesday from Pikitup, who said many people were threatening to withhold the refuse payment in their rates accounts, saying they would not pay for nonexistent services.
Pikitup spokesman Jacky Mashapu said the refuse removal services fee is a monthly charge based on the value of a property as per the promulgated city tariffs.
“The charge cannot be itemised or allocated to a bin, nor the number of collections, neither is it based on the quantity of the waste collected.
“The totality of waste services includes bin collection, street cleaning, illegal dumping, litter picking and landfill operations - these are all funded from the tariff as stipulated in the tariffs policy and city’s waste by-laws,” he said.
Where refuse is not collected due to unforeseen circumstances that may include planned or unplanned strikes, general service delays caused by bad weather or truck breakdowns, Pikitup implements a contingency plan to deal with the backlog of uncollected refuse.
“We regret any inconvenience caused as a result of the ongoing disruption to refuse collection services and would like to assure Joburg citizens and, in particular, ratepayers that we are doing what we can to stabilise the daily operations,” he said.
“We are collecting as much as we can as per the contingency measures in place. Pikitup understands that many residents have had their collections missed. Services are running during the night to deal with delays.
“Where possible, we are sending out extra crews and prioritising areas affected the most.”
Regrettably, Mashapu said, it was not possible to provide a refund or credit during or after an illegal strike. Even though there has been disruption to collection, the law did not permit ratepayers to withhold their refuse charge payments.
Pikitup, said Mashapu, continued to encourage residents and business owners to collaborate with the company by continuing, where possible, to drop off waste at the nearest Pikitup garden refuse or landfill sites.
“While Pikitup expresses its gratitude to individuals who have taken it upon themselves to provide a service to residents to collect waste for a fee, residents are requested to ensure that the waste is being disposed of at Pikitup- approved collection points, garden refuse sites or landfill sites.
“It is not acceptable for people providing this service to dump the collected waste illegally and risk being fined for illegal dumping.”
It's the law, says Pikitup spokesman.
anna.cox@inl.co.za
The Star