The smoke over Kya Sand is toxic. We know how to stop it.
Every night plastics, tyres and chemicals burn beside the Klein Jukskei, and more than 150,000 people breathe the smoke. We are taking government to court to end it for good, and funding security to hold the line until we win.
Here's how we got here, and how you can help end it.
2010
The day it all went wrong
The Kya Sands landfill was full. Pikitup was licensed to close it, secure it and protect the communities around it. It never did. Criminal groups moved in and reopened the dump.
The business
How a dump became a business
Trucks pay cash at the gate to dump. Anything valuable is stripped and sold. Waste fills low-lying land, which is then sold as plots. Whatever is left gets burnt every night to make room for the next day's loads.
2020 to 2022
We asked. For three years.
Residents sent more than 50 emails, hosted site visits with Pikitup's leaders and sat through a workshop with more than 40 officials. We got promises and a 30-page plan. Nothing changed.
2023 to 2024
So we went to court
We formed a volunteer-run non-profit, with a legal team acting pro bono. In 2024 the High Court ordered the City to test the air. Its results came ten months late, and its own report links harmful substances to the burning.
Nov 2025 to Feb 2026
And we proved it can stop
Neighbours and local businesses paid for security at the sites. Burning dropped by up to 80%, and we breathed clean air again. When the money ran out, the trucks came straight back.
Now
Now it's your turn
The court case is the long-term fix. Until it's won, security keeps the air clean, and only community sponsors pay for it. Your donation is tax-deductible under Section 18A.
Every suburb on this list sits in the smoke-drift path of the Kya Sand dump sites. Four SensusAir sensors track the air around the clock. If your neighbourhood is here, this is your air.
This isn't wood smoke. It's burning plastic, tyres and chemicals.
Smouldering mixed waste releases dioxins, PAHs and fine particles that settle deep in the lungs. In winter, temperature inversions trap the smoke in the Klein Jukskei valley.
Children feel it first
Children, older people and anyone with asthma suffer most: coughing, tight chests and flare-ups on smoky nights.
Toxins you can't wash off
Smouldering plastics and cables release dioxins and PAHs, linked to long-term respiratory and cancer risk.
Windows shut, all year
Families across 40+ suburbs keep windows closed and children indoors when the smoke rolls in.
Up to 200
truck-loads a day at the peak, across ten sites (our estimate)
KSBWCF Overview, 2026
Up to 80%
less burning while security was funded
Nov 2025 to Feb 2026
10 months
late: the City's court-ordered air-quality results
Delivered 9 February 2026
11
government respondents in our second High Court application
Filed September 2025
The bigger picture
3.67M tonnes
of South African household waste a year never enters formal collection.
Infrastructure News, Dec 2025
R350M a year
taxpayer cost to clear illegally dumped waste in South Africa.
Infrastructure News, Dec 2025
About 1 year
before Gauteng's formal landfill space is projected to run out.
IOL / allAfrica, 2026
During burningUnhealthy
During the trialGood
The proof it can stop
For three months, we breathed clean air again.
From November 2025 to February 2026, residents and local businesses paid for security at the sites. Burning dropped by up to 80%. When the money ran out, the trucks came straight back.
Security is a stop-gap, not the solution. It buys time for the court case to work.
“The smoke comes right through the door, like it's inside the house after you've locked up.”
Kya Sand Burning Wasteland Community Forum NPC is a SARS-approved Public Benefit Organisation with Section 18A approval. Donations by individuals and companies are tax-deductible, up to 10% of taxable income a year.
PBO reference 930091814. For a receipt, email us your full name, ID or company registration number, income tax number and contact details. General information, not tax advice.
For companies
Put your company on the Wall of Fame.
Monthly company donations get your name, logo and website on the sponsors page, with a Section 18A receipt.
We ask the community to fund this work, so you should be able to check who we are. Our registration, SARS approvals and costs are published here as they are cleared.
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