Illegal dumping poisons Joburg

Grey skyline as illegal waste fires burn waste, debris, toxic materials

- Sheree Bega

Toxic smoke: The illegal dumping site from Cedar Creek forces residents to breathe an acrid haze from nightly burning.

(Supplied)

Before Maria Pule goes to sleep at night, she wedges wet towels into the cracks of her windows and doors. It is the only way she can breathe.

“That’s how we survive because the smell is unbearable,” she said from her home in Kya Sands Estate, north of Johannesburg. “I’m staying right at the back where the dump is. You cough, and you cough.”

Across northern Johannesburg — from Kya Sands and Cosmo City to Fourways, Northriding, Bloubosrand and Chartwell — thousands of residents like Pule choke on an acrid haze of toxic smoke from uncontrolled illegal dumping and nightly waste burning. At night, the skyline turns grey as illegal waste fires sweep through mountains of discarded household waste, building debris, electronic waste, medical waste, and toxic materials such as asbestos.

“You can’t open the windows or doors. You can’t hang your washing outside because you're walking through smoke. It smells like burning copper and cables,” said Pule.

In 2010, the City of Johannesburg issued a decommissioning license for the Kya Sand waste-disposal site. The moment it withdrew in 2015, the illegal dumping started.

Over time, organised criminal networks reoccupied the landfill and surrounding land, turning them into sprawling, unregulated commercial waste hubs.

The Kya Sands Burning Wasteland Community Forum said these operations dominate the region’s informal waste economy. At its peak, about 10 illegal dumps operated and at least five remain active today.

“Waste lords” direct trucks, collect dumping fees, strip and resell recyclable materials, and at night set fire to whatever cannot be sold to clear space for the next day’s loads.