Fleet renewal, recycling and environmental restoration are at the heart of Nelson Mandela Bay’s latest drive to improve waste management. The initiative combines infrastructure investment with community participation as the municipality works to reduce illegal dumping, ease pressure on landfill sites and strengthen refuse collection capacity across the metro.
By Staff Reporter
Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has marked the start of Nelson Mandela Month by launching a major environmental and civic initiative, combining a R34 million investment in new refuse vehicles with a community-led recycling scheme.
The double launch, led by Executive Mayor Councillor Babalwa Lobishe at Happy Valley Park in Humewood, is intended to address long-standing service delivery challenges and restore the municipality to its former standing as one of the country’s cleanest metros.
Accompanied by Mayoral Committee Member for Public Health Thsonono Buyeye and local councillors, Lobishe joined community volunteers in clearing litter from the prominent coastal park before outlining a broader strategy to strengthen waste management across the city.
Reversing the Decline of Public Fleets
The central focus of the day was the unveiling of six new refuse compactor trucks, the first batch of nine new vehicles purchased through the council’s latest adjustment budget.
The funding was secured through an additional R34 million allocation from the Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG).
The arrival of the new vehicles marks an important investment in rebuilding the municipality’s waste collection fleet. Over several years, the number of operational, council-owned refuse trucks steadily declined as the fleet aged.
The shortage left the municipality increasingly dependent on hiring private vehicles, adding to municipal expenditure on refuse collection.
The current acquisition forms part of a deliberate three-year investment strategy aimed at eliminating this reliance on external contractors and rebuilding municipal capacity.
Over the past three financial years, the city has purchased 25 new compactor trucks, investing R30 million in eight vehicles during 2024/25, a further R30 million in another eight during 2025/26, and R34 million in nine vehicles in this financial year.
A Long-Term Vision for Waste Reduction
Speaking during the launch, Lobishe emphasised that new vehicles alone would not solve the city’s cleanliness challenges, calling on residents and local businesses to take greater ownership of their neighbourhoods.
“Like our founding father, Nelson Mandela, said, ‘It is in your hands,'” Lobishe said. “Let us join hands to create clean and safe communities. The purchase of these refuse compactor trucks, and the training of our community members in waste management speak directly to our broader Cleaning and Greening Programme.”
The municipality has set a medium-term target to reduce the volume of waste sent to local landfill sites by 40 per cent.
As part of that strategy, municipal officials say the focus is shifting beyond simply clearing rubbish to rehabilitating areas affected by persistent illegal dumping. Once waste has been removed, indigenous trees and landscaping are introduced to discourage dumping from recurring.
Turning Waste into Livelihoods
Alongside the fleet investment, the launch highlighted a new human-centred approach to environmental sustainability.
The municipality also hosted a graduation ceremony for about 50 local residents who completed a specialised waste recycling programme.
The training was delivered in partnership with two Producer Responsibility Organisations. Rather than simply teaching participants to collect litter, the programme focused on equipping them with practical business skills to help them establish self-sustaining, income-generating recycling enterprises.
By teaching residents how to sort, manage and sell recyclable materials, the municipality says the initiative is intended to create sustainable local employment while easing pressure on the city’s waste collection services.
The Mandela Month Clean-up Programme is scheduled to expand into a coordinated campaign targeting identified litter hotspots across the metro throughout July.
Lobishe and members of her mayoral committee will lead cleaning activities across the city, with the campaign moving next into the Motherwell area following targeted interventions in the Northern Areas and Ibhayi.