A smelly start to 2022

Northam – The Northam streets have become a sore eye for the community.

Platinum Bushvelder spoke to Thabazimbi Local Municipality (TLM) councillor David Gouveia on Tuesday 11 January regarding the state of Northam and the constant illegal dumping. 

• While conducting the interview, unashamed, a man came up and dumped a box of garbage right behind Gouveia – unaware of the interview on the very illegal act he was committing! 

When confronted, he pointed to the garbage pile and said that he didn’t know that you are not supposed to dump your garbage on the side of the road. If you look at the current state of Northam, it’s not difficult to see where the confusion came in…

Frustrated with the smelly, hazardous and unsafe state of illegal dumping, Gouveia said the municipality is doing its best to clean up the streets, but that their effort is wasted if the community doesn’t get their act together.  

• He noted that the municipality plans to enforce municipal bylaws. Hefty fines will be issued to people who dump their rubbish illegally.

In the meantime, they are also working on getting more skips so that there are more dumping points in Northam, but this will only be a temporary solution. 

“I would like to urge the community to become part of the Northam Rate Payers Association where we aim to make Northam a town that we can be proud of.” 

Photo: Thabazimbi Local Municipality councillor David Gouveia at one of the various sites where rubbish is dumped on the sidewalks of Northam.

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