Grandma under siege by garbage
80-year-old endures ten years of unbearable smells, flies and rubbish
Joyce Jakavula is an 80-year-old pensioner who lives alone. For ten years, she says, she has had to endure an unbearable smell from an illegal dump close to her house in NU7 Motherwell, Port Elizabeth. After GroundUp made inquiries the rubbish was removed.
It started with local residents dumping their garbage in an open field next to her house. Jakavula says she did her best to plead with them not to use the site. She also tried repeatedly to get Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to stop the illegal dumping, but without any success.
Then a couple of years ago, the municipality brought a large waste container to the site.
“This made my situation even worse,” she says, “because residents from other streets were now bringing their rubbish to the mobile bin … It is not easily accessed by children and short people. They have to climb on it in order to throw trash inside. Few people do this.”
The rubbish ends up on the ground. She says rotting skins of slaughtered sheep and goats are common during the festive season and the circumcision season.
“The smell is horrible and unbearable … I usually use incenses to drown the odour. The dumpsite is also frequented by pigs and dogs in search of food,” she says.
Rubbish also blows into her yard and gets plastered along her fence. Every morning, she has to remove dirty plastic, paper and cardboard.
Jakavula is asthmatic. She says she also skips meals because the smell ruins her appetite.
When a provincial government portfolio committee was on an outreach program at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Missionville campus, she took the opportunity.
“I meticulously explained my predicament to the committee,” says Jakavula. “They promised that they would approach the municipality on my behalf. Unfortunately, I have never heard anything from them since then [several years ago].”
Jakavula’s grandchild says, “We have tried on numerous occasions to contact the municipality to remove the dump site opposite my grandmother’s place. She no longer opens her front door [only the back door] because of the dirt and the flies. We also wrote to the Public Protector for assistance with no luck.”
Spokesperson for Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Mthubanzi Mniki said, “The complainant has been contacted and it has been agreed that the complaint will be investigated … and the cleaning of the alleged dump site will be done.”
GroundUp can confirm that the site was cleaned as promised. But this will only give temporary relief for Jakavula.
She is now starting a petition with other residents for boundary walls to close in the site and establish a children’s playground.
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