CONSERVATION: Amadiba Crisis Committee 2024-02-05: Dealing with a flood of garbage on the Wild Coast

Amadiba Crisis Committee 2024-02-05: Dealing with a flood of garbage on the Wild Coast

Guest: Nonhle Mbuthuma  - Madiba crissi mangeent

Over hundred villagers on the Amadiba coast in Mbizana have picked piles of garbage on the Wild Coast during the past ten days. Hundreds of bags have been filled with plastic, bottles and filth on the shores. We covered 25km of the coast, from Mtentu to Sigidi villages.

We found plenty of medical waste on the beaches. Hospitals or clinics must be dumping expired medicines in the wrong places. We have never before seen sealed medication bottles on our coast. Such waste doesn’t come from villages and towns

We have reported to the councillors. The Winnie Madikizela Mandela Local Municipality is aware of the situation. The community has put in our best effort to clean the whole coast of the WMM Local Municipality. But the danger is still there. The garbage has not yet been collected to dumping sites.

All rivers that come from afar – Mzamba, Mnyameni and Mtentu – are filled with garbage floating down to the ocean. Villagers have been picking garbage for kilometres along the rivers.

This situation is a danger to our children. They might open and eat medicines or be cut by broken bottles. The coast is a ‘Marine Protected Area’ and the garbage flood threatens marine life. It is even a danger to our livestock.

15 years ago, waste picking on the Wild Coast was organised by the Department of Environment. Then came ‘business opportunities’ and the tender system. On top of that we now have ‘austerity’ and the budget cuts.

The rivers and the Wild Coast are polluted because waste management in towns and townships have collapsed. The government has failed dismally.

Climate change with heavy rains and floods then do the rest. 

Austerity must stop and the tender system must be scrapped.

As Amadiba Crisis Committee we are organising to fight a flood of garbage floating to the coast.

But we are not alone in Amadiba. Municipalities fail to do the very least expected of local government. They focus on promoting mining and ‘smart cities’ to “attract investment”. Who is going to invest in places where the local government cannot do the basics?

Civil society and companies have taken municipalities to court for the failure to serve their citizens, placing municipalities under administration. As ACC, we wonder if we must go down the same route, given the pollution of our rivers and coast as well as the terrible state of our roads.

We call upon the Premier of Eastern Cape, Oscar Mabuyane, to lift his eyes from his beloved national mega projects and focus on the local,