Friedman Park gets cleaned up by local little soccer players

The bustle of lawnmowers and weed eaters, along with the playful energy of children cleaning up the park on Friedman Street, had a sombre undertone of neglect from local authorities.
Laetitia Jones, the vigilante cleaner who tackled CR Swart Road a few weeks ago, facilitated this clean-up on Sunday after she was approached by the soccer players and coaches from the Kempton Spurs Football Club.

“The coaches appealed for my assistance with this clean-up as their youngster flank of the football club uses this park to play and practice soccer. However, the children were unable to kick the ball across the planes as it was overgrown with long grass and thick with weeds and bushes,” Jones explained.

She said the children are considerably underprivileged and lack goalposts on their playground and would often have to practise in the dark on some evenings since the floodlight is broken.
Jones and the football club took part in the clean-up. Everywhere you turn, you could see the children picking up rubble and cut grass, distributing black bags to gather gardening refuse and pulling out weeds from the concrete slabs.

ALSO READ: Residents unite for a cleaner area

According to the football club’s technical director, Nkosi Mnkandla, their football club, based in Kempton Park CBD started recruiting the children in the community to keep them busy and from doing any harm.

“You’ll notice that a lot of children in the community become idle when they are left with nothing to do. This often results in some youngsters getting involved with drugs and illegal activities. So, we decided to have different age groups to keep them occupied after school hours,” Mnkandla told Express.

“The parents are very supportive of our cause, but our challenge is that this park gets so overgrown due to the neglected service. The children would then proceed to play in the street, which makes it hazardous for them. We need the local government to dedicate themselves to the safety, progress and well-being of our children,” he added.

Jones mentioned that she will keep doing the work until Kempton gets restored to its former glory. However, she needs funding and volunteering support from the community. To reach out or sponsor, contact Jones on 083 444 8579.

CR Swart Road maintenance update
The City of Ekurhuleni was approached by the Express on May 19 to discuss the lack of maintenance that resulted in a peak of smash-and-grabs and robberies.
Local SAPS stations like Kempton Park and Norkem Park distributed warnings to proceed on CR Swart Road with caution due to the increase of criminal activities that put drivers and pedestrians in danger.

The City was requested to explain the lack of maintenance to the overgrown islands and sidewalks that obscured the visibility to fend against potential dangers while travelling down the road.
Although the stretch of bushes has been cleared, for the time being, Express believes the City ought to answer to the copious incidents of theft and smash-and-grabs that have occurred over the months. The City failed to respond by the time of going to print.

At the Express, we want to ensure consistent and quality feedback from the City in response to our media queries. To monitor this the Express is introducing a five-star rating system.
Two stars will equate to all questions answered (either direct or indirect); two stars will equate to the relevancy of answers to questions posed; the remaining star will be attributed to adherence to the deadline for comment.

The Express has rated the lack of reply with 0 stars.

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