By Frances Ringwood

On 4 December this year, the board and management of the City of Johannesburg’s waste removal services organ, Pikitup, announced an end to the two-week long strike which has seen the City’s streets overflowing with household waste – as well as four Red Ants shot and wounded.

The Gauteng Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) led by MEC Jacob Mamabolo in partnership with the City of Johannesburg intervened to end the illegal strike between Pikitup and its disgruntled workerss who were demanding pay increases of as much as 40%. Workers were also protesting against what they claimed to be poor working conditions.

In a statement, the strikers, represented by the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu), agreed to return to work once the provincial government had agreed to appoint a senior counsel who will act as a mediator between Pikitup management and staff.

Managing the backlog

Waste backlogs are being handled through Pikitup intensifying its collection processes, although normal rubbish collection schedules remain in place. Pikitup spokesperson Jacky Mashapu told a local news service News24 that the company is working as hard as it can to catch up with the backlog.

“We don’t want to confuse the system and rearrange the collection dates. We are going to stick to the schedule,” he commented.

Other catch-up measures

Other measursd that have already been put in place to overcome litter and overflowing rubbish bins on Johannesburg streets have included the Selby Depot serving the inner-City working overnight on 03 Dec 2015 to collect as much of the overflow waste as possible.

Additionally, on 05 Dec 2015 Pikitup and the City hosted “City-wide clean ups.” This was an initiative which encouraged all residents to join municipal workers to clean up identified waste hotspots in certain suburbs and townships. Results of the clean-up can be viewed on Twitter by searching the hashtags: #Teamuptocleanup #Reclaimyourspace.