​The City wants to thank residents for their understanding and patience following the City of Cape Town’s Solid Waste Management Department’s decision to suspend refuse collection services city-wide and close all City drop-offs for today, Monday 27 July 2020, due to threats of intensifying protest action.

​​Recently City staff and vehicles have increasingly become targets of attack amidst outbreaks of violence. These include the following incidents related to Solid Waste services (see photographs attached):

• Four of our refuse collection vehicles were stoned and damaged in Khayelitsha and Mfuleni
• Our contractor’s vehicle was petrol-bombed in Mfuleni
• A cleansing truck was also petrol-bombed in Joe Slovo Park in Milnerton
• Our contractor’s vehicle was stoned in Masiphumelele
• A staff transport vehicle was hijacked in Khayelitsha

Each of these attacks have occurred within the past two weeks, and refuse collection services have already been impacted due to the ongoing unrest. We have been unable to service Mfuleni over the past two weeks and Wallacedene since last week. Services have also been disrupted in sections of Khayelitsha due to continued protesting and volatility in the area.

​Many of our staff live in Mitchells Plain, Delft, Khayelitsha, Ocean View, Atlantis and other Cape Flats suburbs, so when there is unrest in these areas, it poses a challenge for staff to travel safely to and from work. Roads like R300, N2, N1, M5 and Baden Powell are also used during the work day. 

​​In considering all these factors - the ongoing protesting and threats of a shutdown of the city by certain sectors, we needed to ensure the safety of our staff and vehicles, as we need to transport our staff in and out of these areas daily.

The drastic decision to suspend the services for Monday was made with the safety of our staff in mind. It is also important to keep in mind that protest action and COVID-19 mitigation measures may continue to have an impact on services from time to time going forward.
 
Residents and businesses who have their bins emptied on a Monday should please keep their refuse bins on their property until next week Monday, as scheduled. They are reminded to please bag any additional refuse. These additional refuse bags need to be placed out along with their bins on Monday, 3 August 2020.

The City again thanks residents for their understanding, and sincerely regrets any inconvenience.