Residents of Makhado awoke on Sunday to the smell of suffocating smoke emanating from the municipal dumping site along the Vondeling road.

For the greater part of the day, the town was engulfed in a thick cloud of smoke, with residents wondering why on earth anyone would set the dumping site alight.

As to the cause of the fire, this remains a mystery.

Municipal spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi later stated that they still did not know who or what had started the fire and that they had reported the matter to the police. He said that upon being alerted about the fire, the help of the fire brigade was called in. They eventually managed to douse the fire by covering it with soil.

Many believe, however, that they know who had caused the fire, blaming the large number of scavengers living at the dumping site. In December last year, the Makhado Municipality confirmed that scavengers are indeed living on the municipal dumping site, which is in contravention of the municipality’s permit conditions to manage the site. At that stage, Mr Elias Mugari announced that, with most of the scavengers being from Zimbabwe, the SAPS and Home Affairs had been asked to assist in this regard.

Asked whether the municipality has since managed to remove the scavengers, Bobodi said no. “You go there and remove them, but they just regroup and come back the next day. When the police arrive, they also go and hide in the bushes,” Bobodi said.

The local office of the Democratic Alliance (DA) reacted strongly with regard to Sunday’s fire. “The refuse dump has long been a critical issue … It has become an ‘informal settlement’ of sorts for illegal immigrants who scavenge through the refuse as a livelihood or a means of sustenance. The DA has brought the issue to the attention of the relevant authorities on several occasions, especially since the squatters pose a serious threat to the security of our residents, but to no avail,” said Ms Zaheera Jooma in a press release.