Stolen bins back in spruced up Russell Road
The great Russell Road bin heist is over almost as quickly as it unfolded, leaving the public-private inner city regeneration team that saw them installed somewhat confused — but more street-smart and determined than ever to forge ahead.
Russell Road Regeneration Project founder Steve de Beer said the installation of the bins had been a key step forward and it was a tough blow when they disappeared.
“There is tremendous foot traffic up and down Russell
Road, and until we intervened there were zero bins between Govan Mbeki Avenue and Rink Street, and people were just littering all the time.
“So two weeks ago, we installed 11 bins — four black plastic ones from us and seven plastic wood ones supplied by the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality parks department in recognition of the work we were doing.”
He said when he arrived on site on Saturday he could not believe his eyes.
“Every one was gone. Who would take a bin? It wasn’t like they were metal. We could only presume they were stolen to sell on for a quick buck.”
De Beer said the story proceeded to get even more odd.
“A security guard in the area described how he saw two ‘thin women’ on Friday loading them into a shopping trolley.
“He stopped them and they disappeared but apparently they returned later that afternoon after he finished his shift.
“I reported the theft to the police and the Central special rates authority, and we also put the word out ourselves.
“The theft had jeopardised our continued support from parks from which we were still hoping to get two park benches and table sets, so we were upset and concerned.”
He said on Sunday afternoon, the regeneration team was set to announce a cash reward for the safe return of the bins — but by Monday the whole story had changed.
“The description of the two thin female bin thieves didn’t quite make sense to me, not least because those plastic wood bins are really heavy which I know from when we installed them.
“So I decided to poke around a bit more.”
De Beer talked to half a dozen security guards and also workers on a Russell Road building site, followed a couple of convoluted tip-offs — and at lunch time he hit the jackpot.
“I found the bins in a corner on the building site tucked away under some planks.
“So we will reinstall them now but we will secure them this time with proper heavyduty steel brackets or else concrete them in. Parks department [officials] are over the moon and so are we.”
The regeneration project, sponsored by the Greater Stellenbosch Trust, has been clearing Russell Road and adjacent open space and park land of huge loads of rubbish, plastic sheaths from stolen cables, and caches of syringes and other equipment used by drug addicts.
They have also been removing alien vegetation and planting indigenous trees.
The dream is to create a “circle of hope” extending west from Russell Road to the horse memorial, south to the entrepreneurial node in the Lower Baakens Valley, and north to the maritime history node in Central.
Efforts are now beginning to bear fruit, showcasing the park gardens planted decades ago by the municipality, and the possibility for broader social, environmental and economic renewal.