Letter: It’s going to take a village to clean this place up

Bonny Raitson, Parkrand, writes:

Often when driving I look around and wonder whether anyone else sees the many obvious ways we can improve our environment in Boksburg.

Picking up litter and eradicating illegal dumping are the most obvious ways to clean a place up, but one of the other ways is to crack down on illegal advertising on street poles, electricity meters and anywhere else something is stickable or fixable with cable ties.

Before cracking down, we would of course need to get to the business of cleaning this rubbish off our structures – which could take a very long time as it is so prolific.

Council can also make a huge difference if they started a campaign to remove, replace or fix damaged infrastructure. You see ancient street signs, faded and rusted, bent and buckled that have become part of the pavement or long grass, simply left there to rot (and never degrade).

Broken council bins (always overflowing with rubbish) are everywhere. Some don’t even have bottoms anymore.

Take a drive down 11th Street in Boksburg North and see what the streetlights look like. Shame. They are so rusted it is a wonder they are still standing. Who knows whether they actually work.

I really feel for the businesses in this street who have, over many years, put in time and money to uplift the area but this is the welcome their patrons get.

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Would it not be a good idea for businesses to sponsor a streetlight? They could paint it and (discretely) put their logo on it in support of “We love Boksburg North. Let’s keep it clean!”.

Anything would be better than the current state of affairs of those street poles.

The situation becomes sadder as you venture across Cason Road to Campbell Road and into the CBD. On this route, there are only remnants of what were once streetlights. Another example of council infrastructure “adorning” our streets and pavements.

Look what the island along Rondebult Road between North Rand and the N12 looks like – shocking! Bricks, litter and weeds … and beggars.

How about enforcing the by-laws, which are being infringed all over the show all day long.

At the intersection of Atlas and North Rand roads I recently counted 14 hawkers/beggars/loiterers. 14!

Let me not even start with the woman violating children’s rights by using them as beggars on every street corner.

Are our law enforcers and welfare organisations blind?

I hate to say it but the logical conclusion is that the cleaning and greening of Boksburg is your and my job.
If we all did a small patch every day, we could make a big difference. I doubt council will mind. They are too busy fixing potholes now and waking up out of their Covid trance.

Let’s get cracking ordinary people of Boksburg.

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