When will the Makhado Municipality ever start developing the much-needed new waste-management site for Makhado (Louis Trichardt) and why is the progress so slow?

“A firm of consulting engineers have been appointed to conclude construction designs and drawings and to supervise construction,” the Makhado Municipality said in an answer per email on 12 March. The name of the consulting engineer was asked but was not supplied.

A local firm of good reputation was already in possession of the complete design for the new landfill site more than two years ago. At that stage, a Pretoria-based company had apparently been awarded the tender and it was expected that this company would sub-contract a local company. That was after concerns about the intolerable state of the existing landfill site had been raised for more than a decade. Council has been dragging its feet regarding the new landfill site on the Vivo road since at least 2007, when the local taxpayers association attended a steering committee meeting.

When asked recently to whom the tender had been awarded, the municipal spokesperson, Mr Louis Bobodi, said that the project had been advertised but “the municipality could not appoint, as bidders could not meet the prescribed requirements. The latter implies that the project should be re-advertised.”

In December 2011, the municipality said that the development of the new waste-management site would start the moment that funds became available.

Makhado Mayor David Muthavatsindi said in his budget speech in June last year that the municipality would develop a new landfill site in Makhado and that an amount of R5 million had been set aside for the project. “We shall be closing the existing landfill site in Makhado and an amount of R1.2m has been set aside [for that],” the mayor said.

Bobodi confirmed that the project was included in the 2012/13 budget. The source of funding was indicated as the Municipal Infrastructure Grant. The construction of the first phase of the new landfill site has not yet commenced.

The process for a new landfill site, as cited by the South African Waste Information Centre (Sawic), indicates that the design has to be completed before the permit for the new landfill site is issued by the Department of Water Affairs. Since the feasibility studies had been done and the permit had been obtained, it is time for the next step, which is the preparation of the new site. Once that has been done, the department gives its approval of the site and the new landfill can be operated and maintained in terms of the standard minimum requirements.

The Makhado Municipality said that no tenders had been advertised as yet for the closure or the rehabilitation of the existing landfill site. The objectives of landfill closure are to rehabilitate the landfill, so as to ensure that the site is environmentally and publicly acceptable and suited to the implementation of the proposed end-use (Sawic).