City acts swiftly against illegal paper dump
On Monday, a pedestrian in Windhoek's Agste Laan witnessed unidentified individuals dumping thousands of documents from the education ministry at an unauthorised location. The documents included old question papers and curriculum vitae.
The ministry's executive director, Sanet Steenkamp, confirmed that the photos and videos sent to her by Namibian Sun displayed several personal and public documents from the ministry being discarded unlawfully.
"These are indeed from the ministry, from the examination directorate. I have since given clear instructions that they need to retrieve these documents and correctly dispose of them," Steenkamp said.
"Some things are usually kept for archival purposes, and in this case, I believe that someone did not do what was expected of them. We apologise for this," she added.
Aggressive
According to the witness to the unlawful document dump, the culprits passed a designated dumpsite in the Kupferberg area and "carelessly" got rid of the documents at a random place.
"I approached the private vehicle and tried to question the men about the dumping, but that led to aggressive responses instead," the bystander said.
"I started taking photos and videos that I planned to share to get help clearing up the area," the source, only known as Ruben, explained.
City acts promptly
City of Windhoek officials, who were given access to the photos and video, later tracked down the driver from a licence plate that was shown in the images and resolved the matter.
"We managed to locate the illegally dumped waste alongside Sam Nujoma Road on the way to Daan Viljoen. Due to the nature of the waste, which is paper that can easily blow away, our team cleaned up," the City said.
“We also managed to locate the culprit through the vehicle registration number and he will be fined an amount of N$1 608 for illegal dumping. This will be billed on his municipal account," city spokesperson Lydia Amutenya said.
Amutenya highlighted continuous efforts by the municipality to keep the streets of Windhoek clean and said they cannot tolerate illegal dumping of waste.
"Waste must be disposed of properly at our respective landfill. We also have waste recycling initiatives where this type of waste can be recycled," she said.
The ministry's executive director, Sanet Steenkamp, confirmed that the photos and videos sent to her by Namibian Sun displayed several personal and public documents from the ministry being discarded unlawfully.
"These are indeed from the ministry, from the examination directorate. I have since given clear instructions that they need to retrieve these documents and correctly dispose of them," Steenkamp said.
"Some things are usually kept for archival purposes, and in this case, I believe that someone did not do what was expected of them. We apologise for this," she added.
Aggressive
According to the witness to the unlawful document dump, the culprits passed a designated dumpsite in the Kupferberg area and "carelessly" got rid of the documents at a random place.
"I approached the private vehicle and tried to question the men about the dumping, but that led to aggressive responses instead," the bystander said.
"I started taking photos and videos that I planned to share to get help clearing up the area," the source, only known as Ruben, explained.
City acts promptly
City of Windhoek officials, who were given access to the photos and video, later tracked down the driver from a licence plate that was shown in the images and resolved the matter.
"We managed to locate the illegally dumped waste alongside Sam Nujoma Road on the way to Daan Viljoen. Due to the nature of the waste, which is paper that can easily blow away, our team cleaned up," the City said.
“We also managed to locate the culprit through the vehicle registration number and he will be fined an amount of N$1 608 for illegal dumping. This will be billed on his municipal account," city spokesperson Lydia Amutenya said.
Amutenya highlighted continuous efforts by the municipality to keep the streets of Windhoek clean and said they cannot tolerate illegal dumping of waste.
"Waste must be disposed of properly at our respective landfill. We also have waste recycling initiatives where this type of waste can be recycled," she said.
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