Celebration of community activism for Magaliessig Action Forum
MAGALIESSIG – The forum was created ten years ago to protest development in their neighbourhood.
It was a celebration of community activism on 11 March, when members of the Magaliessig Action Forum (MAF) gathered to commemorate its 10th birthday.
The residents association was created 10 years ago to oppose the development of a large store in their neighbourhood. At the time, the residents attended a meeting to share their concerns and within a month had gathered more than 1 500 signatures opposing the development.
Tamara Oberholster, one of the founding members of the forum, said at the time they had no idea what they were doing but community members offered their expertise, time and money to help fight the development.
“MAF to me is about the people, it wasn’t always fun in the beginning…we were very stressed and stretched and building the plane while we were flying it but it taught me huge lessons on the value of community and the resilience of people,” she added.
“When we stand together we can have a voice and it does matter, even against people who have more money, more power and more resources than us.”
Mary Hanna, the chairperson of the forum added, “We weren’t expert town planners, we weren’t expert traffic counters and we really weren’t expert at anything but what we were experts at was trying to preserve the residential nature of Magaliessig and that was our driving aim.”
Hanna thanked all the members present for the roles they have played in the past and present. “MAF has many people to thank and we still have an important role to play in the community.”
Moving forward, Hanna said their main focus was now on day-to-day needs within the community. These include making sure potholes are filled and regular maintenance is done on verges.
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