R44.5 million national waste management fleet launched

ue to insufficient budget,

Dmost local municipalities find themselves facing serious challenges with waste collection services. As a result, some residents and businesses take to dumping waste in open spaces, thereby creating illegal dumps.

Waste disposal facilities in most municipalities are also often seriously non-compliant, as waste is not properly managed due to inadequate fleets and equipment.

In an attempt to assist such municipalities to address waste collection issues in unserviced areas, as well as illegal dumping and landfill operations in selected municipalities across all provinces, the DFFE in 2018/19 engaged with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) and National Treasury to enable municipalities to procure waste collection and landfill operation vehicles through the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG). In late May 2022, the Minister of the DFFE, Barbara Creecy – as part of the National Waste Management Strategy (NWMS) – handed over waste collection and landfill management vehicles to 20 municipalities, valued at R44.5 million.

The NWMS, which was revised in 2020, aims to provide a framework for government policy and strategic interventions for the waste sector. It is aligned and responsive to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Agenda 2030 adopted by all UN member states.

It is also aligned and responsive to South Africa’s National Development Plan: Vision 2030, which is our country’s specific response to, and integration of, the SDGs within our overall socioeconomic development plans. The strategy is based on the update and revision of the 2011 version and is said to be built on the success and lessons learnt from the previous iteration.

The 2020 version focuses on the introduced concept of a circular economy, aiming to reduce environmental impacts by the reuse and recycling of processed materials. The concept and strategy are further expanded on through the three strategic pillars: • waste minimisation • effective and sustainable waste services • compliance, enforcement and awareness. Minister Creecy has reiterated that, in order to achieve the goals of this strategy, all stakeholders must play their part.

“National and provincial government must support municipalities to develop local integrated waste management strategies. We must ensure our landfills comply with the regulatory environment and waste does not leach into groundwater or into the soil. We must invest in the yellow fleet and, every year, we must ensure more and more homes have access to safe waste disposal.”

To improve waste management in municipalities, the department is assisting in the development of their integrated waste management plans, and training on sustainable waste management practices. They have also

cooperated with CoGTA to change the MIG Policy so that municipalities can now access this grant to fund their waste collection and landfill management vehicles, also known as a yellow fleet.

As part of these interventions and to raise awareness on the amendments of the MIG Policy, the department used R44.5 million of its own money to provide 24 vehicles to 20 municipalities across the country. The vehicles include skip loader trucks, front-end loaders, compactor trucks, TLBs and other trucks required to transport waste within these areas.

Collins Chabane Local Municipality received a compactor truck and a skip loader, together valued at more than R5 million, to assist in waste collection and the processing of waste at landfill. Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality received a waste compactor truck and a TLB with a combined value of nearly R4 million.

Creecy asserts that the private sector must also promote the circular economy and divert waste from landfills, seeing as government has already set up the regulatory environment for extended producer responsibility schemes to promote recycling in the packaging, electronics and lighting industries, with recent regulations gazetted for new sectors such as used oil and pesticides.

“Government and the private sector must work with waste reclaimers so that we build a dignified waste reclaiming industry that promotes waste diversion from landfills, promotes the circular economy, and gives a decent livelihood to the tens of thousands of men and women who do the daily, backbreaking work of the recycling industry,” Creecy concludes.

Municipalities allocated yellow fleet vehicles (TLB = tractor loader backhoe; FEL = front-end loader)

Mpumalanga Mbombela 1x compactor truck 2 R2 551 881.81 Mbombela 1x skip loader truck R2 849 049.05 Bushbuckridge 1x compactor truck 2 R2 551 881.81 Bushbuckridge 1x skip loader truck R2 849 049.05 Limpopo Ba-Phalaborwa 1x compactor truck 2 R2 849 049.05 Ba-Phalaborwa 1x TLB R1 065 211.87 Collins Chabane 1x compactor truck 2 R2 551 881.81 Collins Chabane 1x skip loader truck R2 849 049.05 Western Cape Matzikama 1x skip loader truck 1 R2 186 150.00 Cederberg 1x skip loader truck 1 R2 849 049.05 Free State Masilonyana 1x compactor truck 1 R2 849 049.05 Matjhabeng 1x compactor truck 1 R2 551 881.81 Metsimoholo 1x TLB 1 R1 065 211.87 Gauteng Merafong 1x skip loader truck 1 R2 849 049.05 Rand West City 1x FEL 1 R1 003 124.20 Eastern Cape Makana 1x skip loader truck 1 R2 849 049.05 KwaZulu-Natal Ray Nkonyeni 1x TLB 1 R1 065 211.87 Umhlabuyalingana 1x TLB 1 R1 065 211.87 Dannhauser 1x FEL 1 R1 065 211.87 Northern Cape Emthanjeni 1x TLB 1 R1,065,211.87 Dawid Kruiper 1x FEL 1 R1 003 124.20 Kai Garib 1x FEL 1 R1 003 124.20 North West Moses Kotane 1x FEL 1 R1 003 124.20 Ramotshere Moiloa 1x FEL 1 R1 003 124.20 Total 20 municipalities R44 586 713.46