Abstract
The City of Tshwane is the capital city of South Africa which puts it in the limelight on provision of basic services such as waste management, electricity, water and basic health care. However, the City is no exception to the national waste management challenges although there are some improvements. This study aims to evaluate the extent to which the documented objectives of the Integrated Waste Management Plans are being executed on the ground, and whether they are effective in addressing the existing waste management challenges in the City of Tshwane. This study evaluates the current status quo of the City of Tshwane in relation to waste management and the involvement of different stakeholders, and concludes by outlining challenges associated with effective implementation of waste management strategies.
In order to understand the underlying factors descriptive research design and qualitative methodology were used. The rationale of this approach is that the qualitative data and results provide a general picture of the research problem and more analysis by addressing questions, such as “what and why” in order to understand underlying factors. A purposive sampling strategy was adopted and data was collected from a total sample size of 10 participants. Interviews were conducted with 3 municipal officers, 2 landfill managers, 4 informal waste pickers and 2 managers representing the recycling facilities, using semi-structured interviews.
It was discovered that lack of sufficient budget allocation is the most persistent and hindering challenge to effective service delivery, together with other underlying challenges such as ; the rapid population growth especially the informal settlements, lack of competent and skilled waste managers and staff and the reluctance of community members to participate actively in waste separation at the source. Furthermore, the city needs to carefully evaluate their execution plan so as to enforce effective implementation, to ensure that not only are their policies good on paper but also effective on the ground. Not only did the study investigate the challenges but it highlights a number of interventions that can be adopted to address these challenges. Some of these includes; establishing a reliable database for waste data including waste generation and waste characterization, provision of proper training for waste management officials for competency, municipality could encourage waste recycling and community involvement by establishing waste buy-back centres closer to these disadvantaged communities.