There has been a new service schedule for refuse collection since Monday March 16.
The City of Cape Town says refuse collection should not be delayed by more than one day.
If a resident’s refuse is not collected, it should be collected the next day, said mayoral committee member for water and waste, Xanthea Limberg.
Disruptions to refuse removal times and subsequent backlogs have been experienced as a result of revised procedures to audit and governance processes that came into effect from Friday January 24, the City said in a press release.
This was affecting repairs to vehicles and infrastructure throughout the municipality.
However, this was primarily being felt in the solid waste collections service due to the high demands placed on vehicles in the service and the associated intensive maintenance programmes that are required to keep the service working normally.They said various City departments had worked day and night to finalise 709 purchase orders for the servicing of its 211 refuse vehicles in line with the new audit requirements and to continue the refuse service as best as possible, including timeously clearing backlogs.
Suppliers were requested to speed up repairs and maintenance of vehicles to get them back on the road again. Where applicable, senior staff in the solid waste service had also been recalled from leave to ensure contingencies, such as redistribution of vehicles to worse-affected areas, said the mayoral committee member for finance, Ian Neilson.
“We have worked hard to ensure that the revised procedures do not have an indefinite negative impact on service delivery. City financial experts have developed ways to speed up the procurement process in a manner that is compliant with the new audit and governance requirements while at the same time, together with our Solid waste department, everyone has done their utmost to ensure that the impact on services is minimised wherever humanly possible,” said Mr Neilson.
“Residents throughout the City should please bring their bins out by 7am in the morning, and leave them outside until 9pm until collected. The City’s solid waste teams will continue to also work on weekends to clear any backlog which still exists.
“Excess refuse that cannot fit in the wheelie bins will also be collected until this problem is resolved. Residents are also implored not to resort to illegal dumping if collection delays cause refuse to build-up to the point where it cannot fit in the wheelie bins.
“The City apologises for this inconvenience. We want to thank our residents for their patience during this time while every effort is being made to restore normal services,” said Ms Limberg.