I was absolutely thrilled to see our landlord, finally, getting rid of the junk that’s been accumulating for some time now (old carpet, picture frames, pieces of wood, etc.) in the courtyard, an area that is only used on washing days.

Imagine my horror, when later I saw all this junk piled in a Pick n Pay trolley outside our entrance gate in the Main Road! I left it since it was just after 5pm and assumed that they would cart it away soon.

This morning I found all the junk on the pavement. The Pick n Pay trolley was collected in the evening and poor guys had to first unpack the “junk” from the trolley before they could take it back to the shop! My son and I was left feeling absolutely disgusted!

After school drop off l took some pics with the intention to report to the City (and give the details of my landlord) and to write an open letter to the local community paper if my planned phone call to our landlord did not result in them taking responsibility for clearing the mess! I had 30 minutes (walking to school and back) to think about my plan of action.

Well, luckily our landlord arrived while I was still at home and I politely introduced myself to him (yes, I’ve lived in the building for 7 years and today was the first time that I actually put a face behind my calls and emails!!).

I politely pointed out the junk and said “I noticed you cleaned the courtyard yesterday, thank you, but am disgusted by the fact that you just left the junk in a Pick n Pay trolley last night and now it is laying all over the pavement! Are you planning to dispose of it today?” He cleared his throat and answered “yes” and then called his helper back and asked him to put the junk in the back of his bakkie (don’t know why he didn’t just do that yesterday!).

Anyway, I continued, “I am glad to hear this, because dumping this junk here overnight, outside the building gates, in the Main Road, shows a complete disregard to your tenants, the public and our environment. It also creates a very bad impression of us, the people who live here”. He nodded and I thanked him for his time and went back inside to get ready for work.

Fifteen minutes later and all the junk was in the back of his bakkie!

I am so sick and tired of people who think it is their RIGHT to dump their junk! Report illegal dumping to the City of Cape Town via sms on 31373 or call them on 0860 103 089