Guardian Angel, Tondani Lushaka Forum join forces to clean Alexandra
Consistent clean-ups and community awareness campaigns could solve Alexandra's long-standing litter problem where past efforts failed.
Alexandra has seen many clean-up efforts over the years, from council-led drives to community initiatives, but keeping the township clean remains a persistent challenge.
Against this backdrop of hard-to-sustain progress, the Tondani Lushaka Forum and the Guardian Angel Wildlife and Marine Trust (GAWMT) sealed a partnership on September 8 in Sandton.
The partnership was built on a simple wager that the fastest way to clean up Alexandra and keep it clean is to first invest in its youth and get the buy-in of its residents.
Robert Nwedo, chairperson of the Tondani Lushaka Forum, who has spent more than two decades working with Alexandra’s most vulnerable, said the new partnership is about cutting straight to action.
“We need to immediately make sure that we start with actions. We want to prioritise cleanliness in our community.”
Honorary Colonel Raymond Kramer, whose organisation, GAWMT, has built an army of scouts from a single member to 1 900 members, emphasised that the movement’s focus will fall on the youth and rally community support from there.
“It is easier to bend a young tree than an old tree and at the end of the day, if we focus on the youth and we keep a principle ‘Keep Kasi Clean,’ that is where it starts,” Kramer said.
His approach to keeping Alexandra clean relies on an unwavering belief in discipline, which he said shapes more than just behaviour. “Eighty percent of success of the youth, of anybody in life, comes from character and discipline,” he said.
Rather than attempt to transform Alexandra overnight, GAWMT and the forum will choose a single area to focus on before expanding outward. “Where the people in that area are focused, youth come in, the scouts come and we clean up that area. We keep it clean and we bring pride and dignity to the people in that area. Once we succeed there, we move to the next kilometre,” Kramer said.
Nwedo said it will be critical to raise awareness because cleaning without conscientising the community is a problem. “You clean and within a few seconds, it is dirty again. But once we initiate the programmes, we will also make sure that we raise awareness about the importance of cleanliness.”
Nwedo indicated that success will ultimately be measured in perception, expressing hope that Alexandra will be looked at completely differently in future.
