Young people tackle grime
An enthusiastic group of Grahamstown young people has started a much-needed clean-up campaign around Grahamstown at no cost to the municipality, with the aim of improving the image of the town.
Bopha Cleaning Service which is led by Grahamstown resident Yandiswa Madinda has volunteered to clean some of the dirtiest spots around town for free in an attempt to showcase her new business’s skills. Only four councilors managed to grab the free opportunity to contribute to the cleanliness of their wards.
Bopha is a company formed by Grahamstown people living in Joza who want to make a lasting difference in all areas of town. They realise that there is a lot of rubbish and illegal dumping sites around town and they are offering to clean-up the mess.
On Monday councilor Ramie Xonxa was the third councilor to benefit from Bopha’s services. Xonxa who has been vocal about dirtiness of the town jumped at the opportunity to clean up five areas around his ward.
“Today we are trying to clean up Ward 2 because it’s very dirty and dirt causes illness due to the polluted air people breathe and the dirtiness of the area they live in,” he said.
Xonxa said they were working together with Bopha Cleaning Services in an attempt to clean his ward with help from Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) volunteers, Ward committee members from Ward 2. They were also expecting Community Work Programme volunteers to pitch up but they didn’t arrive.
“We are cleaning five sites today (Monday) and we would like to appeal to the municipality to ensure that people who dump il- legally face the wrath of the law through enforcing by laws. The municipality has a big role to play in making sure that the township is clean through efforts like these and the enforcement of by-laws,” Xonxa said.
Yandiswa Madinda, who is the leader of Bopha Cleaning Services said they used to work in the Extended Public Works Programme under a company called Cokisa, but the contract ended last year in October.
Madinda says instead of sitting at home they decided to start their own company because they could see that Grahamstown is dirty.
“We registered in January with the help of the Grahamstown Residents Association who assisted us with money to pay for registration as we are unemployed,” she said.
Madinda says in March they started their work in councilor Mncedisi Gojela’s ward in March. Madinda says this is where they met Council Speaker Yandiswa Vara who then persuaded them to consider helping other councilors to clean their wards. “We then decided to make April a cleanup month so people in Grahamstown can see positivity and people working in their areas,” she said.
In Xonxa’s ward Madinda says they cleaned mainly dump sites, one near Mrwetyana, Nombulelo, Kwathatha, near Cewu, near Xonxa’s shop.
“Before that we cleaned Ward 10 and people came out to support the initiative, but what held us back was the lack of working equipment, like front loaders and vehicles. On Wednesday, [26 April] we are going to clean up councilor Gaushe’s ward,” she said.
Madinda emphasized that this would be the last clean-up they would do for free. “The next one will have to be paid for. We have been paying for the materials out of our own pockets. Some of the tools we borrowed from the CPW team,” she said.
About two hundred pupils from Nombulelo Secondary School took over from where the others left off, cleaning the area around their school on Tuesday.
Bopha works with partners, Makana Municipality, Community Worker Programme (CPW), schools, Masihlule Project (Recycling) and many others. It depends on what needs cleaning to decide how many helpers or equipment they need.
The cost of providing this service varies. The basic costs to be covered is R750 per day. There may also be a need for black bags and gloves which increase the cost to about R2000 per day.
Example: if you want the road where you live cleaned then it may take 2 days and the cost would be R1500. This money could be raised by neighbors joining together e.g. 15 neighbors would pay R100 each and your whole street would be cleaned.
We are cleaning five sites today (Monday) and we would like to appeal to the municipality to ensure that people who dump illegally face the wrath of the law through enforcing by-laws.