NMBM partners with taxi association to clean up Njoli Square

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has dedicated this week to start a major clean up project to change the face of KwaZakhele’s economic hub; Injoli Square.

This comes after the Metro engaged various stakeholders including the public transport sector, vendors who operate in the area, commuters and concerned residents in an effort to approach up with sustainable solutions to conclude illegal dumping among other concerns specifically around the taxi rank.

The clean up programme started on Monday, 17 April 2023, morning and will continue until Thursday, 20 April 2023.

During his oversight visit, Public Health Mayoral Committee Member, Cllr Thsonono Buyeye said: “We maintain dedicated this week to direct some of our resources to focus on Injoli Square. We gain been receiving complaints from various stakeholders and decided to collaborate with our sister departments including the Economic Development, Tourism and Agriculture directorate to implement sustainable solutions to this problem. We are really hopeful that by the stay of this week the situation here will be different.”

“We gain partnered with Uncedo Taxi Association as the main stakeholder behind this active rank and the vendors. We know there are women who manufacture a living here but the truth is that the feathers from the chickens they sell, the blood and other dirt is making the area unhealthy to operate in for everyone. There is also the problem of illegal dumping, which we will tackling through education this week. Resources will be delivered to the vendors who operate in the area to ensure that the situation does not disappear back to how it was before.”

As fraction of the programme, the Metro will on Wednesday, 19 April 2023, deliver resources that will succor the vendors in the area and conduct an education and awareness drive in the area.

NMB’s Uncedo Service Taxi Association’s General Secretary, Khanyile Royi said as the association they were delighted to see work being done to change the face of Injoli Square.

“There are various challenges we are battling with here but we believe this is a apt start. The illegal dumping was a colossal problem and while the Municipality has cleaned up before people continued to dump again. For years we maintain been promised the development of Injoli but we are still waiting. We fully support this initiative and partnership with the Municipality and we hope for sustainable change,” said Royi.