The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has prioritised more than R42 million of its budget to procure waste management fleets for local municipalities.

This is part of efforts to improve waste services and ensure that South Africa becomes free of illegal dumping, litter and other waste.

As part of this intervention, the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, handed over the waste collection and landfill management fleet, also known as the Yellow Fleet, to Merafong City Local Municipality (1x skip loader truck) and Rand West City Local Municipality (1x front end loader), amounting to a combined budget of nearly R4 million.

According to the Minister, a large number of municipalities in South Africa are struggling to provide the communities they service will regular, and consistent, waste collection services. Municipalities also struggle to clear illegal dumps and to meet landfill site compliance requirements.

“The Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) policy used to fund only immovable assets, such as the development of landfill sites and transfer stations, didn’t initially accommodate funding of operations equipment and fleets, such as waste compactor trucks, front end loaders, translation lookaside buffers (TLBs) and skip loader trucks, which takes up about 70% of the total cost of providing waste services in municipalities.

“But, through the collaboration between the department, National Treasury and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), the municipal infrastructure grant policy now includes funding of the yellow fleet,” Creecy said on Monday.

She has encouraged all municipalities to take advantage of these changes in order to purchase the waste operation fleet from the MIG allocation.

“My department is already making use of this opportunity and has prioritised a portion of its own allocation to purchase a yellow fleet for 20 municipalities at a cost of more than R42 million. This will contribute to the improvement of waste services in communities,” she said.

The Minister appealed to residents to ensure that their neighbourhoods are clean.

“I encourage you all to pick up litter on the pavement outside your home, in your parks and in the street, to throw your waste in a bin and not next to it, and to support your municipality in its efforts to delivery effective waste services,” she said.

Source: South African Government News Agency