Perhaps the only things more disconcerting than seeing a fly infested illegal dump site in Phakalane is seeing more than one fly infested illegal dump sites in Phakalane.
And yet, last Thursday afternoon, there were dozens of buzzing heaps popping up from an expanse of yellowing grass.
“Look at that one, and that one, Oh, look at that one,” Phakalane Estates Managing Director, Lesang Magang, said as were driven through a blur of mountains of construction debris not very far from double storey mansions with manicured laws and guards in front of electric gates.
Phakalane is the Botswana property of choice – sophisticated, upmarket suburb featuring expensive shops, a world-class hotel and Gaborone’s most illustrious addresses.
Lately, however, the suburb’s well-heeled have been talking more about rubbish dumps and dirty pavements than comparing their latest acquisitions and shopping listsÔÇô subjects that usually make cocktail party conversation pieces.
“I have tried to talk to the city council but they are turning a deaf ear. They do not seem to know that I am the goose that lays them golden eggs. Phakalane Est…” then ooh! Excuse me!
The ooh! Excuse me! Is because he has to answer a cell phone call from a resident who is complaining that each morning she goes to work, she has to drive past a sidewalk choking in garden waste just next to her house.
When the call came in, Magang was trying to explain that, plot for plot, Phakalane Estates is paying more service levy to the city council than any area in Gaborone.
The city council, however, simply pockets the service levy, wrinkles its nose at the huge illegal dump sites and sticks up its finger at Phakalane residents.
To give me a rough idea of just how much in service levy the council stands to make once Phakalane is fully developed, Magang tries to calculate the net value of Phakalane’s residential development.
He shakes back his Tag Heur wrist watch, reaches for his Nokia E 62 cell phone, clicked on the calculator symbol and started punching in several digits.
The cellphone screen responded with; “Results too large to display.” Even the Sharp desk calculator blacked out. He puts the figure at somewhere in the region of P1 billion. And therein lies the problem. To hack a billion pula suburb from acres of thorn bushes, building contractors need huge landfills to dump construction waste.
In construction, an average 200-square-meter house dumps about 8,000 pounds of construction debris. Contractors increasingly find themselves with lots of waste and nowhere to put it.
To residents from neighboring villages with idle trucks, this is concrete gold. Hundreds are discovering that they can make a quick buck hauling trash from Phakalane construction sites, if only they can just find a cheap place to dump it.
Most load their trucks make a dash to the Phakalane and Gaborone North bushy area that is still not developed and then dash back to claim their pay. As a result fly dumping has become a serious problem as villagers with vans and small trucks realize that it pays to dump illegally.
The situation is not helped by the mushrooming of squatter settlements in Phakalane. In a recent letter to the Department of Waste Management & Pollution Control, Magang complained, “We have illegal dumping activities happening on a daily basis in Phakalane. There are also some squatter camps mushrooming in the future development phases of Phakalane that have no proper sanitary facilities which in turn contribute to the pollution of the environment.”
Lately, however, these dumps have been attracting more than just flies and squatters who sift through the rubble for anything that can be salvaged.
Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Kitso Mokaila, one of the many cabinet members who list Phakalane as their residential addresses recently visited the illegal dumping site accompanied by his Permanent Secretary, Dr Lucas Gakale.
Phakalane Estates has also employed two casual workers to record all fly dumpers and so far more than 200 names and car registration numbers have been recorded in the black book. In some instances, some trucks were recorded dumping rubble on the illegal dumping sites up to eight times in one day. The police have started chasing after the culprits and will be given the choice of either paying a P 50 000 fine, serving a prison term or clearing the illegal dumping site.
Magang says the dumping site will be divided among the more than 200 fly dumpers.
Magang, who has started negotiations with the Ministry of Enviroment and English Premier League officials to host the English team during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, is not leaving anything to chance. He is even proposing that if the City Council finds it difficult to service Phakalane “the other alternative would be to make Phakalane a sub council and be separate centres.” This would give Phakalane control of millions of Pula paid by residents to the city council as service levy.
In a letter to the city council, Magang said another possibility would be for the city council to establish a service centre in Phakalane. “This just means re-deploying Gaborone City Council staff to work from Phakalane. Phakalane would require full time staff and can initially start with a by-law officer.
Said Magang, “Phakalane Estates (Pty) Ltd’s mission was to create a world class residential and commercial estate with services to match. Gaborone City Council is overstretched with the entire Gaborone, including surrounding commercial areas that contribute little but enjoy services and yet do not pay rates.”
His proposals are backed by recommendations of the Second Presidential Commission on Local Government Structure.
