The City of Tshwane has hit back at residents and businesses opposing a municipal charge for using private waste removal services, calling them “free riders”.
About 196,396 residential property ratepayers and 62,055 businesses are using private refuse removal contractors because of the unreliable municipal service.
In May the cash-strapped metro approved a levy on households and businesses using the private contractors. It plans to raise R601m a year via the “cleansing charge” for the provision of waste-related services such as street cleaning, and general urban hygiene management.
AfriForum lodged an urgent application at the Pretoria high court last week to halt implementation of the levy, arguing that affected residents and businesses were contributing to the city’s cleaning services via property rates and the money paid to the metro by the waste collection contractors.
In an affidavit filed on Tuesday, Tshwane metro’s waste management head Louis Makhubele said that while affected parties used private contractors, the municipality was still responsible for processing of rubbish at landfills — a service those ratepayers receive but do not pay for.
“The ratepayers who do not have an account with the city are effectively free riders. They enjoy services for which they make no contribution,” Makhubele said. “The city of Tshwane receives no contribution from these ratepayers and instead subsidises the cost of the service from ratepayers who pay the city for waste management.
“The treatment and management of waste is predominantly dealt with by the municipality. There are no sizeable and privately owned facilities which cater for 196,396 residential properties and 62,055 business ratepayers,” he said.
“Many of the ratepayers’ waste is ultimately delivered at the facilities of the city of Tshwane for processing and management.”
AfriForum said private contractors paid a fee to dump garbage at metro’s landfills but Makhubele said dumping at city landfills is generally free.
“I challenge AfriForum to provide evidence of private waste collectors paying Tshwane for use of its disposal sites,” he said. “The truth of the matter is that nearly 90% of the waste in the territory of the city ends with the city’s waste management efforts.”
Makhubele said the municipality needed the cash to manage garbage disposal.
“The city operates the waste management activities on an ongoing deficit of approximately R150m. Yet the actual work that is required for waste management is in the region of R500m, more than what the city currently expends,” he said.
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