8 Julie 2016
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Local Government & the news that matters Articles and photos by: Joe Dreyer • joe@bulletin.us.com
Clean audit for landfill site Members of AfriForum-Tzaneen and delegates from their head office were blown away by the state of the Greater Tzaneen Municipal landfill site. The organization launched their national dumpsite audit program earlier this month and conducted an unannounced visit to the Tzaneen site on Tuesday morning. “This visit forms part of our nationwide campaign to audit landfill sites in various municipalities and make sure they comply with the minimum requirements set out in the National Environmental Management Waste Act. AfriForum converted these requirements into 25 questions which are used to perform the dumping site audit,” explained Mr Pieter Venter, Chairperson of AfriForum Tzaneen. Following their two hour inspection the team awarded Tzaneen a perfect score after they found not one inconsistency in
The AfriForum audit team. Top is Hein Gonzales, Chris Boshoff, Anna van Rooyen and Lizandra Viviers. Below is Chanté van Schalkwyk, Stephan Honnibal, Eugene Schutte, Pieter Venter and Anton Viviers.
the site’s operations. They conducted an intensive interview with Mr Eugene Schutte, the site’s waste management officer who explained every aspect of the site’s operations in great detail and highlighted some of the community involvement projects active at the site. One such project which captured the attention of the visitors was the registering of so-called “Pickers” in order to enable these people to earn an income legally and safely. “If it was possible to award this site with more than a 100% pass mark, we would gladly have done so,” said Mr Stephan Honnibal, AfriForum Environmental Affairs chairperson.
Eugene Schutte
Henk Minnie*
“What we saw here was absolutely unbelievable. We have not visited one other landfill site thus far that compares in any way to the efficiency of the GTM Landfill site. Very, very well done indeed.” The team had visited several other landfill sites in recent weeks and according to them, Tzaneen was an exemplary site and should be used as a model by other municipalities to bring their own operations up to standard. A full report on their audit will be released in due course. * Mr Henk Minnie is die head of the department
ABQ power lines cleared Lack of maintenance by the Greater Tzaneen Municipality (GTM) along the Agatha ABQ road in Tzaneen has led to a local group taking matters into their own hands. On Tuesday afternoon a group of people affiliated to AfriForum Tzaneen, took grass slashers and saws and began work on clearing the shrubbery and trimming large trees growing underneath the power lines along the ABQ road. This movement was led by AfriForum Tzaneen chairperson, Mr Pieter Venter, and his team under the banner of the #doenself campaign.
“Power outages in this area has long been a problem for the residents along this stretch of road in the Agatha area,” said Venter. “The problem began some time ago when the contractor assigned to maintain this area was dismissed by the GTM following protests by Samwu on the issue of outsourcing. Since then the shrubs and trees that grow along the road in close proximity to the power lines, have been the cause of power outages during windy or stormy days, as they blow into the lines and cause arcs which then trip the mains.” In the space of just a few hours, Venter
and the team under guidance of Lizandra Viviers and her father, Anton (both residents on ABQ), managed to clear a significant stretch of the shrubbery which they hope will spark the GTM into action. “This is a two-pronged approach to a problem that affects all of us,” said Venter. “On the one hand we hope that our action here showed the community that they should stop complaining and start taking steps to solve the issues that affect them adversely. “Secondly, we hope that we have placed some pressure on the GTM to step up and improve their maintenance program to see to it that small issues are dealt with before they have the chance to transform into larger, costly problems.”
The AfriForum grass slashers were Anton Viviers, Chanté van Schalkwyk, Chris Boshoff, Pieter Venter, Hein Gonzales, Anna van Rooyen and Lizandra Viviers.