Pamela van der Merwe, Fish Hoek
At the best of times the Fish Hoek Main Road is in a bad state with the broken pavements, filthy urine drenched areas and a water truck that runs haphazardly.
Then there is the constant litter, cigarette butts and general rubbish to deal with.
For this purpose we have a group of expanded public works programme (EPWP) workers who are contracted by the City of Cape Town to clean Main Road.
The first few groups did a job well done, were on time and got on with the job at hand.
The last few groups – not so great. They arrive a little later every morning, trudge along, do their shopping, and then in a group – one holds a bag, one holds a spade, one is on his phone and one has the broom – start their cleaning.
Only the parking bays are swept and rubbish collected. Hit a few, miss a few.
Why can the management not monitor them more effectively and see to it that the actual pavements, where we must walk, are also swept?
It is bad enough the pavements are not completely washed down, why can’t they at least be swept down?
• Mayoral committee member for urban waste management Grant Twigg responds: We would like to assure residents that staff are supervised to ensure daily duties are effectively completed. A reminder will also be sent that workers should not have cellphones on duty.
Regarding the later arrival of workers than previously, teams have been instructed to first attend to conditions at the taxi rank before moving to Main Road due to high levels of litter at this facility. Parked vehicles do sometimes obstruct sweeping in parking lots, but all litter in parking lots is picked up during daily beats.
Regarding unhygienic pavements, urban waste management continues efforts to address this in the face of high levels of homelessness in the area. A new programme of deep cleaning using a knapsack disinfectant spray is operating on a daily basis. Unfortunately there are limited resources and further interventions are not possible at this time.
Should you wish to highlight poor service by EPWP workers, you can do so by documenting this with photographs (time stamp if possible, please), and submit these to wastewise@capetown.gov.za or contact.us@capetown.gov.za. Residents can play a key role in ensuring required standards in service delivery.
