FS farmer continues fight for garbage-free property

There is no reprieve for the beleaguered Khotso Zacharia Mabaso, a frustrated farmer from Hennenman whose farm is continuously used as the “official Hennenman dumping site”.

It is now almost nine months that this man has been fruitlessly fighting for his rights to a clean farm entrance, free of piles of the town’s refuse.

Vista reported in March that Mabaso was at his wit’s end concerning this situation.

The farm is adjacent to the Hennenman landfill site and Mabaso is desperate for municipal intervention.

Despite numerous communications with the mayor’s office and virtually every municipal department, he has still hit a brick wall.

According to Mabaso, his farm, Le Souvenir 541, is located next to the landfill site and sewage treatment plant.

Mabaso says the road to the landfill is inaccessible, especially when it rains.

“Because of this people just dump their refuse in the road or on my farm. Last year there was a fire on my farm, which emanated from the fires on the landfill.”

Mabaso says the fire destroyed infrastructure on his farm, as well as entire stretches of grazing and crop fields.

Mabaso says the road to the landfill is inaccessible, especially when it rains. “Because of this, people just dump their refuse in the road or on my farm. Last year there was a fire on my farm, which emanated from the fires on the landfill.”

Hennenman’s ward councillor, Maxie Badenhorst, is also desperate. Her pleas to address Mabaso’s problems, and the refuse problems of Hennenman as a whole, fall on deaf ears.

“I approach senior managers, they make promises, they say meetings will be urgently held, but nothing happens,” she expressed.

Badenhorst says the municipality has not attended to the landfill site, and refuse in this town has not been collected for six weeks.

“Concerning Mabaso’s problem, people cannot access the site and therefore dump on his farm.”

Badenhorst has on numerous occasions approached the director of infrastructure, Lauretta van Wyk, who allegedly makes promises, but nothing happens.

“Van Wyk said in May that the landfill site and the area will be cleaned and managed properly, but to date the situation is just getting worse. On Tuesday morning, 29 November, Van Wyk again promised me that the senior manager infrastructure was on site,” says Badenhorst.

She says none of the promises made by the municipality have come to fruition.

It is now almost nine months that Khotso Mabaso has been fighting for his rights to a clean farm entrance, free of piles of the town’s refuse.