By Rex Mphisa
THE Beitbridge Municipality is choked by refuse generated by thousands of returnees from South Africa and is now failing to cope with its usual collections routines, Ziyah News Network can exclusively reveal.
Tons of litter are now generated at the Social Welfare Reception Centre and the border post where the returnees ejected from SA are being processed and these are creating tons of litter while they are in waiting.
Town Clerk Loud Ramakgapola said other large amounts of litter are being generated inside the border post through where thousands of transient Malawians head home after being ejected from SA.
“We cannot cope, we have one refuse compactor and it has been outstripped by demand. As a result we cannot collect garbage from suburbs as regularly as we should because the workload from the border post and the reception centre is huge,” said Ramakgapola.
“We were hoping our other refuse truck is fixed them we can have one dedicated to the border and reception centre,” he said.
The Municipality of Beitbridge collects approximately 700 tonnes of solid waste and litter monthly during normal times.
But the recent developments in South Africa has also increased transient population which waits inside the border while their arrival is processed.
Exact figures of returnees that have since passed through Beitbridge are not easy to establish but they could be in the range above 200 000 people.
Some returnees are doing it at their own volution but others are being assisted the governments of Zimbabwe and Malawi which have been provides buses.
SA has been ejecting black foreigners from that country although it has not had the same treatment for other races.
An activist Jacinta Ngobese Zuma has been at the forefront of these expulsions and she set June 30 as the date when all foreigners must have left South Africa.
There are an estimated 2.5 to 4 million foreign-born individuals currently living in South Africa. Official demographic analyses indicate that approximately 83.8% of these immigrants are black.
SA nationals have been vocal against these blacks accusing them of taking their jobs.
Reactions to foreigners by SA nationals have been violent and sometimes bloody and many foreigners took heed of Zuma’s March and March warning.
Ramakgapola said the council was also investigating the possibilty of supplying water at the centre currently relying on boreholes.