FOR over two months now, the Maseru City Council (MCC) has been tidying the capital’s streets, relocating vendors to ease pedestrian movements and sprucing up the town’s overall image.
Some of the vendors being evicted had illegally occupied pavements, creating congestion and forcing people to walk on the main roads thus endangering their lives from accidents. They have been relocated to various open spots across town while those operating illegally have been permanently evicted.
The MCC has also issued a directive to businesses operating from commercial buildings around the city to desist from placing illegal billboards outside these buildings.
The decisive move has resulted in a cleaner and less crowded capital city. This has, however, created noise from vendors and the small business owners, who have complained that the MCC was taking away their livelihoods.
Additionally, in a desperate bid to control irresponsible littering and the creation of illegal dumpsites, the MCC has taken to arresting and publishing on its social media platforms, names and pictures of those involved in any polluting practices. When one is caught dumping garbage at an illegal site, they are slapped with a M5000 non-negotiable penalty and in some instances taken to court for a jail sentence.
To learn more about the MCC’s decisive moves, Lesotho Times (LT) reporter Mathatisi Sebusi recently sat down with the council’s Public Relations Officer Makatleho Mosala.
Excerpts:
LT: Please tell us about the ongoing operation where we have witnessed street vendors being removed from the streets?
Mosala: We have an ongoing operation aimed at cleaning Maseru town. We have discovered that there are challenges restricting this initiative from being achieved to our satisfaction. Our primary challenges are mushrooming shacks, scrap vehicles and undocumented street vendors.
Let me clarify that there are licensed and unlicensed street vendors who have occupied MCC pavements without permits.
So, we are working on dealing with these challenges. We are evicting undocumented street vendors, whose operations are restricting ongoing developments such as the rehabilitation of roads, and those who are generally blocking the way.
There are also documented street vendors whom we have relocated and given alternative working stations to make room for the town’s development.
We also issued a directive to owners of scrap vehicles, which are mostly used as working stations, to remove them. We are actually working on clearing pavements to ensure that dust bins get space and are visible to people for disposal of waste.
By doing this we are trying to reduce littering around town and encourage people to use trash cans which will be placed around the town.
We are also reminding business owners that their licenses do not allow products to be advertised from outside their buildings as per the Country and Planning Act of 1980 Section 9, subsection 3 (8) and Business Registration and Licencing Regulations 11, read with Schedule 4, Section 8,9, 12 and 13.
These pieces of legislation will help us take legal measures against those businesses that choose not to adhere to the directive.
There is no timeframe for this directive. People are expected to comply by moving their products back into their shops.
Should they fail, we will help them to move their products and when we do, we will either dispose of them at the Ha-Tšosane dumpsite or sue them.
What we are trying to say is, we are going to use existing laws to bring order especially on people who will be reluctant to comply.
Street vendors with MCC permits are supposed to occupy a space of two meters from the pavement.
Also to be looked into is whether documented street vendors comply with their trade permits, such as selling products as stated on the permits they hold. Street vendors’ permits show among others, the name of the permit holder, place allocated to the street vendor and type of business to be operated at the specific space.
LT: How many street vendors operate without licenses?
Mosala: We do not know because they are undocumented.
LT: Let us talk about the anti-pollution initiative MCC has embarked on. We have seen pictures and names of people caught in polluting acts, such as dumping garbage on illegal sites, being published on the MCC’s Facebook page. What motivated such drastic action?
Mosala: Most times we receive complaints from different communities where pollution happens. People tend to remove waste from their homes and dump it in other people’s communities. So, with the initiative, we are trying to protect people who are exposed to pollution while they are containing their own waste.
For the past ten years, we have been promoting the Community Contracting Concept, which was motivated by the lack of open roads to allow MCC trucks to collect waste at some communities, and our incapability to collect waste at all communities paying MCC for waste collection.
The concept involves contracting community members with vans, to collect waste for a monthly fee. We encouraged the communities to come together and agree in the presence of their chiefs and councillors on the amount to paid for collection and dumping of waste at the Ha Tšosane dump site. With the arrangement, community members see to the collection of waste and payment of waste collectors, instead of paying waste collection fee to MCC.
Because we want to still have control over this initiative, the communities every month bring their receipt books at MCC to be stamped so that we know people involved in the program and the vehicles collecting waste, so that we can monitor their movements and ensure that waste is dumped at the right dumpsite.
It came to our realisation that some community members do not comply, instead choosing to dispose of their own trash. Very unfortunately, they dispose it in other people’s communities and illegal dumpsites.
So, taking pictures of polluters and publishing their details on our Facebook page, is our way to deter such behaviour, and remind people that there are environmental laws in place, and that legal action can be taken against them if they pollute the environment.
LT: What is a fine for someone found polluting and how much polluting is polluting?
Mosala: As per The Environment Act 2008, Section 38, Subsections 1 to 5, a fine for polluting is not less than M5000, and no less than 2 years’ imprisonment or both.
This means that offenders will be fined M5000 or face two years in prison with the possibility of both depending on the magnitude of pollution created. We should be aware that polluting is disposing of anything unwanted to the public at a place where it is not supposed to be. It could be throwing a banana peel on the ground while there is a dust bin for that purpose. It is disposing of nappies at open spaces such as the veld, or even throwing a bag of waste in a donga or at an illegal dumpsite. Waste is waste and we do not categorise it.
We also encourage communities to police themselves and report polluters so that legal action can be taken against them. People we are arresting for polluting are paying the fines I just talked about.
LT: Has the initiative made any impact?
Mosala: Yes. There has been a lot of impact. We had the problem at Masianokeng and Khubetsoana, where pollution was very bad. Since the initiative, people no longer litter. People are now aware that we are taking action against polluters and have stopped.
To ensure that other communities follow suit, last week we started holding public gatherings and guiding communities on starting community contracting and community policing. This is to prevent them from taking waste from their homes to dump it in town or other people’s communities. It is also to encourage them to take legal action against polluters within their communities.
LT: I understand that MCC is overwhelmed by illegal dumpsites. How bad is the situation?
Mosala: It is very bad. Illegal dumpsites are just too many. In the last exercise we did, where we wanted to erect anti-littering boards, we identified more than 35 illegal dumpsites across Maseru. These are dumpsites that require heavy machinery to clean.
LT: Let us also consider the behaviour of people, especially men who urinate on the streets. Is that also considered as polluting? If yes, is there a fine for it?
Mosala: Urinating on the streets is pollution and there is a law prohibiting it. It is also a form of public indecency. What we are doing to all polluters, we will do to them as well. If we see anyone urinating on the streets while patrolling, we are going to arrest them. They too will be dragged to court for the offense. We are doing all in our power to deal with anything that affects the environment negatively.
People should not expect that there will be a time that we will make announcements, that we will arrest them for urinating or committing any acts that affect the environment negatively. We will just pounce on them.
LT: Is the MCC making any progress in terms of relocating the Ha-Tsósane dump site to Rothe?
Mosala: We have already designed the closure and rehabilitation program of the Tsósane dumpsite. The way we are dumping waste now, is in line with the rehabilitation program that will continue after relocating to Tšoeneng. We are currently addressing concerns raised by communities in the vicinity of the dumpsite, who are complaining about among others, the pungent smell, as well as rat and cockroach infestation. We engaged a contractor recently to fumigate the dumpsite and affected households.
The Tšosane dumpsite will be rehabilitated and be used for any other purpose following the relocation. Left behind will only be the history that there was once a dumpsite there.
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