Volunteers to staff monthly clean-up
ABOUT 1.6 tons of waste is removed annually by the City of Joburg’s entity, Pikitup, and most of this ends up in landfill sites that are fast getting full.
It costs the city R569 million a year to clean the streets and deal with illegal dumping.
Launching the A Re Sebetseng clean-up campaign for the inner city in Yeoville yesterday, city mayor Herman Mashaba said if residents did not start reducing, recycling and reusing, the city would soon become “one big dump site”.
Hundreds of people including DA leader Mmusi Maimane, MPs, Gauteng Legislature members, religious leaders, members of the Lions rugby team, schools, businesses and local residents turned up to launch the campaign, donning rubber gloves and getting to work cleaning the streets. Pikitup trucks collected the bags.
This campaign is to run on the last Saturday of every month at different wards in the city.
Mashaba said the project would enhance the city’s R50m investment in Pikitup for a third cleansing shift in the inner city. This was expected to grow to R82m in the medium term.
A Re Sebetseng is modelled on the Rwandan Umaganda, which is also a monthly campaign in which all residents come together to clean the city.
“From a war-torn city in shambles, Kigali is now known as the cleanest in Africa,” Mashaba said.
Every last Saturday of the month, plastic bags, gloves, brooms and other cleaning equipment will be issued to residents who volunteer.
“We are encouraging everyone to get involved to help clean their own environments. This will go a long way in attracting investors into the city, which, in turn, will create jobs. Businesses don’t want to operate in dirty environments. Clean suburbs also lead to increased property values and safer and healthier communities,” he said.
Mashaba especially appealed to business to keep their premises and surrounding areas clean, to sponsor clean-ups and to get involved with their local communities, saying they contributed 36% of all waste collected.
The Congolese community, which has a large presence in Yeoville, was out in full force.
Ecerta-Sakis Gambool-Muzmam from the Democratic Republic of Congo said he was there to show that he wanted keep to “my country and my capital of Africa” clean.
“Yeoville is very dirty, and I want to lend my support in cleaning it up,” he said.
Yeoville resident Given Mhlanga said she was very happy with the campaign.
“This area is dirty and we now want to keep it clean,” she said.
Another resident, Anna Mokoena, agreed.
“We want to live in a clean area,” she said.