Cape Town's monument to waste - THE PROOF

Dear Patricia de Lille, Mayor of Cape Town,

          In a month or two it will be the usual time, if the last two years are anything to go by, when your Council starts wasting a pot full of money once again on trying to keep the sand in place on top of a rubbish dump closed 32 year ago.

          Here’s the proof that what has been done up to now at Witsands, not far from Cape Point, has been a dismal failure. Tragically this hasn’t prevented your officials from repeating the same expensive mistake ad nauseam and that’s why I am appealing to you once again to step in and stop it.

          It has already cost the Council something like R6 million over the last 11 years with the worst examples being during 2016 – 2017 when the spending went through the roof. I am sure you have read all my other posts on this subject so you can easily go back to them if you want to refresh your memory about exactly what has been going on.

          Here are my latest pictures which show once again what a failure the very costly nets have been when it comes to keeping the sand in place.

May 2016 - Rubbish exposed after twice being covered with
sand and having nets erected on it

April 2017 - Nets erected again this time right on top of the 
rubbish whereas on all previous occasions sand was dumped 
on top of it before the nets were erected

Nov 2017 - Rubbish being exposed in the same place as shown
in the previous pictures. Will soon be back to square one
as it was in May 2016

          The next set of pictures show what happened to the bed of the stream that was dug out for the water that never appeared.

May 2017 - The place where the stream was in 2016 was dug
out with a bulldozer even though there was no sign of water
 running. This is the view looking towards the mountain.

                                 

Nov 2017 - The sand blown by the wind has completed filled 

                       in what the bulldozer dug out.

       Here's one that shows how much rubbish is now exposed on another part of the site. It's another glaring example of how your Council's expensive management of this old dump has been a complete failure.

Nov 2017                                                                                     

         These pictures show conclusively how ratepayers money has been blown away. And I have more equally graphic examples that illustrate that there is probably more exposed rubbish on this 19 ha site now than there has been for some years.
         Regards,

         Jon, a Consumer Watchdog hoping against hope that you will at last do the right thing by putting a stop to this terrible waste.

P.S. See also: Blacks in disgusting conditions ; Money wasting department ;
Millions blown away ; Scandalous money dumping