Armed criminal syndicates have taken control of a number of Joburg’s decommissioned landfills, selling access to them for illegal dumping, using them as a base for drug peddling and other illegal activities and burning the waste in ways that endanger adjacent communities.
Despite being closed in 2010, the Kya Sands site has become a lucrative hub for “waste lords” who facilitate the illegal dumping of up to 200 truck-loads daily, including from commercial waste management companies.
A three-month investigation has found gangs accepting payments of between R200 and R500 per truck to offload waste at the dumpsite.
The Kya Sands dump has grown to 50m in height and to make further space the gangs burn the heap every evening, sending plumes of toxic smoke into the air. Surrounding communities complain of health complications caused by the smoke.
Dangerous medical waste is part of the material being dumped.
The investigation has identified seven landfills where this is happening. Apart from Kya Sands, similar conduct was also witnessed at Msawawa, Elsecar Road Site 1; Elsecar Road Site 2; Verdun Road Site 1; Verdun Road Site 2; and Jackson Road.
Kya Sands residents are living in fear as they face death threats if they speak out about gangs involved in these illegal activities. Allegedly armed with guns and knives, the syndicates also sell cocaine, CAT, and nyaope. Residents say they have been threatened with beatings, stabbings and shootings for speaking out.
The City of Johannesburg formally recognised the problem in a 2022 Integrated Environmental and Enforcement Strategy, admitting that the sites were under the control of “waste lords” and required R140m for rehabilitation. The strategy identified illegal dumping, environmental degradation and criminal activity as urgent risks requiring coordinated intervention by Pikitup, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, environmental health and other municipal units.
But the plan has gathered dust while the mountain of refuse grows and the community complains of toxic fumes coming from the site.
On March 11, environment MEC Ewan Botha led a multi-agency environmental compliance blitz at Kya Sands. Six arrests of undocumented foreign nationals were recorded, 92 stolen concrete manhole covers seized and three arrests made for illegal dumping and waste management activities. Trucks dumping illegally were impounded and fines issued for transporting waste without permits.
Official notices from the city and law enforcement have not deterred those who operate the site. Even a high court order has failed to stop the daily burning of waste.
At the Msawawa dump, money was seen exchanging hands between one of the “marshals” running the dump site and an unidentified man in an unmarked white truck who then offloaded his building material and left. Homeless men around the sites help to offload for a fee of R10 to R50.
Tshego Mogau, who presented himself as a homeless person at the site, said: “I earn a living by offloading rubbish from the trucks.” He described others at the dump sites as either “eyes and ears” or “drug peddlers” for the “marshals”.
The claim that more than 200 trucks were dumping daily is contained in a lawyer’s letter from the Kya Sand Burning Wasteland Community Forum NPC in September 2024. The forum has for years warned that the air quality is bad for community health. The letter was sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa, then minister of forestry, fisheries and environment Dion George, then police minister Senzo Mchunu, defence & military veterans minister Angie Motshekga, Johannesburg’s waste management company Pikitup and the City of Johannesburg.
Reporters photographed trucks from two companies paying to dump at Kya Sands.
A woman who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of backlash from the “Kya Sands gangs” told how her five-year-old child developed respiratory conditions after they moved next to the dumpsite.
Another community member who is on an oxygen tank made similar claims. She believes the dumpsite caused her illness.
A Zimbabwean man, Thabo Moyo, was identified as one of the illegal dump “marshalls”. He ignored calls seeking comment. When detailed questions were sent, he claimed he was unable to read English. He was offered a further opportunity to respond, but did not.
Another Zimbabwean, identified by the pseudonym Mfundisi, allegedly sells stands around the Kya Sands dump area.
Mfundisi responded to questions by saying: “Myself illegal dumping? I don’t understand you man. If you have time we have to meet. I don’t know anything about that … who gave you my number?” He promised to contact the reporters, but did not.
Kya Sands has become a test case in law and governance. The landfill was decommissioned in 2010 under a licence that required fencing, monitoring, and rehabilitation. Yet by 2015 Pikitup had withdrawn, leaving the ground open to syndicates.
The Kya Sand forum delivered to all levels of government a series of written warnings from mid-2023 and an urgent national appeal in 2024. In August 2024, they were granted an order by the Gauteng high court compelling the city to conduct comprehensive air‑quality testing around the landfill and the installation of passive air samplers and testing with full results and an expert report due by April 30, 2025.
The forum went back to court in September last year seeking a declaration that the 11 respondents — including the City, Pikitup, JMPD, GDARD, national ministers and the president — had failed to fulfil their constitutional and statutory duties to prevent pollution in what the application terms the “Kya Sands Pollution Crisis Zone”.
A March 2025 report tabled before the city’s environment and infrastructure services committee confirms the full extent of the collapse at Kya Sands. The city acknowledged that the landfill has been “reopened by the ‘Waste Lords’ and used as a dumping site with dumping reaching over 50m high”.
The report estimates that 100 to 300 trucks dump waste at the site every day, with the city noting that “most of the illegal dumping was done by commercial waste management companies”.
The city also admitted that “the palisade wall has been removed”, allowing unrestricted access. The report confirms “an additional seven illegal dumping sites in the Kyasands / Msawawa areas”, and that mixed waste has contaminated the natural watercourse bordering the site.
Faced with these conditions, the city’s rehabilitation plan was scheduled to begin in mid‑2025, with a projected cost of R140m and completion expected in the 2026/27 financial year.
The Kya Sand forum confirms that years of engagement with the various stakeholders produced no action. The forum set up four security checkpoints and tactical response vehicles, funded by community donations, which reduced dumping and fires, but financial constraints have forced them to scale back, leaving only the checkpoints in place.
Two independent air‑quality studies were conducted by Airshed Planning Professionals in June and July 2024 at the Malibongwe dump and the main Kya Sands dump.
Both reports, each conducted over 14 days, found that benzene in the air exceeded the annual national ambient air quality standard of 5 µg/m. The studies noted that night‑time southerly winds and poor dispersion conditions contributed to elevated concentrations.
Boitemogelo Kwakwa, programme manager for air quality and the environment at the University of Johannesburg, warned that uncontrolled burning of mixed waste produces “a complex cocktail of irritants and toxic compounds”.
Kwakwa identified the most dangerous emissions as “fine particulate matter, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds such as benzene and hydrocarbons, black carbon and acid gases”.
“Benzene is well established as a hazardous air pollutant associated with blood and bone marrow effects, and long‑term exposure is linked to cancer risk. In a residential setting, the concern increases because exposure may be chronic and may include sensitive groups such as children, older persons and people with pre‑existing illness.”
Pikitup did not respond to questions sent in February and again in March.
The city’s environmental health directorate also did not respond to questions.
There was also no reply to numerous queries sent to JMPD spokesperson Xolani Fihla.
In response to queries, MEC Botha’s spokesperson Bridgette Mbonambi said the directives issued after the March 11 blitz “initiate[d] an internal process in which the department, together with relevant stakeholders, must assess operational, legal and resource considerations and develop an implementation plan.
“At this stage… specific operational details, targets, structures or budgetary commitments have not yet been finalised. For this reason, we are not in a position to provide detailed responses.”
- This article was produced by Our City News, a non-profit newsroom serving the people of Johannesburg.
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