Lack of City response puts brakes on project

We want to keep our youth off the streets, make them see beyond the evil

NEARLY two months after Mitchells Plain motoring enthusiasts asked the City for help in leasing unused land for community upliftment projects, they said they have received no feedback.

The motorheads identified the Lentegeur Sports Field as a place to distribute food to the needy, and eventually hoped to use the space for motoring events.

Project and events co-ordinator Gustav Serfontein said that, despite numerous communications between the City and the organisation, their plans have come to a screeching halt.

“We have the whole of Mitchells Plain behind us and they support the initiative because, at the end of the day, the community will be the beneficiaries of a programme like this.

“We want to create a sustainable youth programme in the community and keep our children off the streets and make them see beyond the evils that grip their community,” Serfontein said.

“We need the government to support these causes and we aren’t even asking them for money.

‘‘All we ask is their support and resources so that we may equip our youth.”

Attempts to get comment from the City yesterday were referred to the local ward councillor, Michael Petersen.

But all enquiries to councillor Petersen’s office were unanswered at the time of going to press.

Serfontein said they also hoped to facilitate a learnership programme where youth would be trained in specific skills, in order to become “successfully employed and (then) to have the graduates of these programmes impart the same knowledge to the next generation”.

Local racer and spinner, Jonathan Schaffers, said residents had asked him to come on board to work on a feeding scheme initiative that would also impact positively on the youth in the area.

“We want to take this initiative and, with its positive impact, request that the spot where we currently hand out food on a weekly basis be earmarked as a space for spinners to practise their sport legally, and at the same time keep children and our youth off the streets,” Schaffers said.

Serfontein said they have received nearly 4 000 signatures on a petition supporting the call for the use of the sports field “which has seen many murders and criminal activities”.

FOR A GOOD CAUSE: Motoring enthusiasts from Lentegeur in Mitchells Plain have come together to make a positive impact in their community by starting a soup kitchen. Requests to use an open space in the area have been ignored by the City.