As waste piles up and the stench intensifies, Tembisa residents threaten protest

Residents of Tembisa, on Johannesburg’s East Rand, are up in arms over uncollected waste that is piling up in the area and has become a health hazard. They are demanding that the municipality clean up and are threatening a service delivery strike if the situation does not improve fast.

In August, a service delivery strike in Tembisa led to the death of four people and the Ekurhuleni Customer Care Centre being set alight.

In Tembisa’s Kanana Extension 5, street vendor William Shiburi’s stall is beside a stream filled with litter. He said he seldom sees a rubbish collection truck in the area.

A bridge over the stream serves as the entrance to Shiburi’s neighbourhood from the nearby main road. 

“The rubbish can get so much that it blocks the bridge …. Rubbish will be thrown into the stream of water as people try to make space to walk over the bridge. We have families, and children we are raising in this community — it is not safe,” Shiburi said.

“Not so long ago, the bridge was full of rubbish, and because there is limited space, young people pushed an old lady into the stream full of rubbish by mistake and her leg was cut open. I don’t know what happened to that lady after she was rushed to hospital. I never stopped thinking about that lady for a very long time.”