Pikitup trucks stand idle as Joburg rubbish piles up and rats run wild

Eight broken Pikitup trucks have been standing idle for between six and eight months at Mohale Workshop in Laser Park, west of Johannesburg.

Parked alongside a steady stream of Eskom and City Power vehicles that are repaired and returned to service within days, the Pikitup trucks have not moved.

“I can’t do anything for Pikitup without payment or authorisation. It’s a problem,” said workshop owner Nkululeko Mabhula, who says the waste management entity owes him more than R300,000. He has a further five Pikitup trucks stranded at his Kaya Sands workshop.

“I don’t charge them for vehicle storage, and sometimes I have had to turn away business because there is no space in my yard.”

Ironically, despite being up to date with his City of Johannesburg account, Mabhula has had no electricity for several days and recently had to pay a private contractor to remove his rubbish because Pikitup had failed to service the area.

The idle trucks are a symptom of a crisis that has left ward councillors inundated with complaints as refuse goes uncollected across large parts of Johannesburg.

Only 34% of their suppliers are being paid within the required 30 days. Their average supplier waits 172 days for payment.

—  Beverley Jacobs, Fairland councillor

DA ward councillor Devon Steenkamp said a whistleblower alerted him to the abandoned trucks. The tip-off was one of several complaints about Pikitup he has received, alongside videos of rat infestations at townhouse complexes and photos of piles of dead rodents due to the rubbish build-up.

Fairland councillor Beverley Jacobs has launched a petition calling for an independent investigation into Pikitup. The petition has thousands of signatures and remains open until July 17.

“The Pikitup problem has been hitting my ward hard, so I went to look at the third quarterly reports tabled in June, and I am angry. Pikitup’s own internal auditors are saying it’s a sinking ship,” Jacobs said.

She said Johannesburg had been regarded as being in trouble in 2022 when it was down to four operational landfill sites. Today only two remain functional, forcing refuse trucks to travel much further and queue for hours before offloading.

Jacobs said Pikitup had also been hampered by chronic underfunding, R740m in irregular expenditure and slow payments to suppliers.

“Only 34% of their suppliers are being paid within the required 30 days. Their average supplier waits 172 days for payment.”

Residents had tolerated inconsistent collections for months, Jacobs said, but delays of three and four weeks were being reached and becoming “a tipping point”.

Julia Fish, executive director of JoburgCAN, said key performance reports that were due to be presented at the June council meeting had still not been made public.

She said four issues lay at the heart of the crisis: a labour dispute affecting productivity, poor performance by a contractor appointed in December, delays in implementing a waste-to-energy project aimed at reducing pressure on landfills, and the city’s broader cash-flow problems.

“There isn’t enough cash coverage and revenue collection monthly to pay all the bills. Pikitup is not self-sustaining and relies on cross-subsidisation from property rates to fund itself. They don’t have complete supply chain management, and fleet services are managed through the CoJ [City of Johannesburg]. So on a revolving basis contractors don’t get paid and fleets are grounded.”

The disruption has created opportunities for private operators who charge about R100 to empty a household black wheelie bin

The Johannesburg Crisis Alliance is also demanding greater transparency, including the release of outstanding performance reports and a full public assessment of the city’s remaining landfill capacity, said alliance co-ordinator Yunus Chamda.

“It’s not isolated operational failure. It’s another symptom of the city’s deepening financial and governance crisis,” he said.

Chamda said Randburg, Roodepoort, Kensington, Yeoville, Berea, Malvern, Soweto, Orange Farm and Lenasia were among the areas experiencing growing waste backlogs.

The disruption has created opportunities for private operators who charge about R100 to empty a household black wheelie bin.

Chris Luvhengo charges R500 for a full bakkie-load, saying individual collections are too small to be viable.

Another operator, James Umbisis, said he charges R100 for a household collection but drops the price to R85 if several residents or an entire complex book together.

Pikitup confirmed on Friday that service delivery remained disrupted at five of its 12 depots, largely because of protests by casual workers demanding jobs.

Spokesperson Anthony Selepe said the Avalon depot remained the hardest hit, with casual workers blocking the entrance and preventing permanent staff from leaving to collect refuse.

Pikitup did not respond to detailed Sunday Times questions about the broader operational and financial concerns.