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Newcastle once proudly sported the title of Cleanest Town in KwaZulu-Natal. In fact, Newcastle clinched this title more than once, most notably in 2003, 2008, and 2013.
The town was identified as KwaZulu-Natal’s “greenest municipality” by the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs and the second cleanest in South Africa after Tzaneen.
Sadly, Newcastle slowly slipped into a spiral due to mismanagement, waving goodbye to such titles.
However, the Newcastle Municipality is determined to restore Newcastle to its former glory. This comes after the Newcastle Municipality Mayor, Cllr Xolani Dube vowing and assuring Newcastillians that the town will once again become the cleanest town in KZN.
The Mayor made the pronouncements during the handover and unveiling of a brand-new state-of-the-art waste truck on Thursday, 7 April 2022. The Mayor was joined by Deputy Mayor Cllr. Musa Thwala, Speaker of Council Cllr Thengi Zulu, the Chief Whip, and councillors of various portfolios.
According to the Municipality’s Communications Unit, the state-of-the-art truck is set to add value to an already existing fleet of municipal waste trucks.
“It will also ease the burden of waste collection, as it has a bigger space capacity, and its levers operate at a more rapid speed. The brand-new truck will operate at a quarter of the fraction compared to ordinary trucks, ensuring that more areas across Newcastle are covered at a shorter period,” emphasised the Communications Unit.
With the Mayor dubbing the occasion as a new era towards a cleaner Newcastle, Cllr Dube reiterated that the new waste truck was symbolic of restoring the status of Newcastle to one of the cleanest towns in South Africa.
The Mayor also assured Newcastle residents that the waste truck would be well maintained and not abused as it belonged to the community.
“This new waste truck symbolises the new administration’s commitment of restoring Newcastle to its former glory of being the cleanest town in the country. We have appealed to the staff from the waste department to work diligently and to use the truck accordingly, since it belongs to the taxer payers. I’m pleased to announce that our journey as the new administration has begun on a positive note, and we will continue bringing meaningful change to the community that we serve,” remarked the Mayor.
With a new slogan that reads ‘trust us to deliver’ engraved on the side doors of the truck, the municipality is determined to usher in an era of speed and efficiency in meeting the needs of the community.
Newcastle, this means that you now have to stop the littering, cut your grass and be a part of beautifying this wonderful town of ours.
What are your thoughts on the above-mentioned?
Share your views in the comment section below.
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5 Responses
Congratulations that is wonderful we all need to work together to make this happen eg. keep you own area clean . Cut the grass on the pavements outside you house etc
Well done. This is a great step forward. I trust that our lovely city will soon be clean and neat again, with gutters free from debris and grass and weeds, so that water can run freely and not stand on the roads because water cannot run off into the storm drains. Water standing on the roads leads to potholes. It is difficult to drive in wet weather as one has to try to avoid aquaplaning on bodies of water and also dodge potholes. Would it be possible to also address the issue of beggars standing at traffic intersections. A few weeks ago I felt threatened as a woman driver, as one chap was banging softly on my car as I was waiting for the green light. It is also hazardous for them, as well as drivers, trying to negotiate traffic as well as dodge them, especially in peak traffic hour. The issue of littering also needs to be looked at, as the municipal workers work very hard to clean up the CBD at the end of a day/in the evening, but the following day shoppers heedless drop litter all over the CBD. But well done again on the babysteps forward and may Newcastle once again look like the awesome city it once was.
The only way to keep Newcastle and suburbs clean is for the people to learn not to litter every where exspecially in the suburbs it is a disgrace what it looks like and i dont think that it can be done because the people that litter have no diciplin and pride in themselves
Cutting of grass on municipal property is the municipalities responsibility. It’s called service delivery.
Congratulations on your new truck! It is everyone’s duty to keep our town clean, stop littering, stop loitering, use social services to place beggars back to their families or shelters, stop noise pollution that is part of cleaning.
May I ask why Newcastle provincial hospital caters for only maternity cases? May I suggest it be converted back to district hospital.