Refuse Removal

On the surface Asivikelane traffic lights appear bad. But if you take the time to look closely, you will see many green shoots of service delivery improvement starting to sprout.

Asivikelane reports many examples of the delivery of new taps and toilets, repairs to these services, improved toilet cleaning and better waste collection in several communities. But overall the situation remains dire as not a single municipality scored a green light.

Metros: As 2020 comes to a close, Asivikelane focuses on what metro municipalities and the Asivikelane campaign should do in 2021.
Non-Metros: Some local municipalities have responded, but access to water and sanitation remains limited.

Metros: While national government reduced conditional grants to some metros, they all benefited from the R11 billion increase in equitable share funding in the national adjustments budget approved in August. Consequently, we see an overall increase in spending, but not for informal settlement services. The result is that services to informal settlements are slowing down or, in some cases, even declining.

Non-Metros: Some improvements have been noted in Witzenberg, but not much has changed in the non-metro municipalities. Access to all 3 services remains a challenge in many municipalities, with access to water and sanitation particularly concerning.

Metros: Two-thirds of Asivikelane participants are women and most of them say that there is not enough public lighting in their informal settlements. On the bright side, most metros now have green traffic lights for water however sanitation is still at critical levels. We hope that metros will use their share of the R11 billion of additional equitable share funding announced by Minister Mboweni, as well as reprioritised conditional grant funding, to address this problem.

Non-Metros: While there are still too many red lights, almost all non-metro municipalities have improved their services to informal settlements.

Asivikelane data highlights that the National Treasury gave metros R2.4bn in unspent funding for informal settlement water, sanitation and refuse removal! However, broken, clogged, and irregularly cleaned toilets remain a problem in many areas.