Makhado municipal spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi last week announced that, due to technical and logistical problems, the town’s new landfill site will no longer come into operation on 1 April, but will become operational on 1 July.

“Residents are advised to keep on depositing their refuse at the old dumping site until 30 June,” said Bobodi in an urgent email to the Zoutpansberger.

Earlier last month, the Makhado Municipality sent out letters to all users of the Vondeling dumping site, stating that the site will close on 31 March. In the letter, residents are urged to start using the new municipal dumping site behind Tshikota. At that stage, Bobodi said that the existing dumping site will close as it has already reached maximum capacity.

Following the announcement, the Zoutpansberger enquired into what exactly the “technical and logistical problems” entailed, wondering if it had anything to do with the licensing process of the new site?

On Monday, Bobodi assured residents that the municipality met all the necessary licencing condition as required by law for the new site. The new site will be managed under license number 12/9/11/L413/5 as issued by the Department of Environmental Affairs.

As for the “problems” experienced, Bobodi explained that they are still in the process of gravelling the road to the new landfill site and are still awaiting some equipment. This included the purchasing of a TLB for the new site.

Another factor that is delaying the opening of the new site, is the fact that vandals damaged the new site office and ablution facilities. “These facilities are not yet refurbished and the energising of the facilities not yet finalised as anticipated,” said Bobodi. The vandals, among others, stripped the newly built ablution facilities and site office of its electrical wiring, as well as electricity distribution board.

Bobodi said that although the existing site at Vondeling had reached its capacity, residents must continue to use this site. This site will only be closed, said Bobodi, when the new landfill site is fully equipped with all the necessary resources to enable the proper running of the site in accordance with the strict license conditions.

Once the Vondeling site is closed, the process of rehabilitating the site will commence. “The process of operation to close has been started at the Vondeling landfill site and the appointment of the service provider for the rehabilitation will be done in the 2017/18 financial year,” said Bobodi. He added that it is not true that a contractor had already been appointed to handle the rehabilitation process. “The tender was advertised and nobody responded according to the specification. Therefore, we have to re-advertised during the current financial year,” said Bobodi.