More and more communities are taking matters into their own hands to restore dilapidated towns to their former glory.

Residents are no longer sitting around waiting for municipalities; they are making a difference themselves.

Grassroots initiatives tackle neglect

It began with Tidy Towns on the KZN South Coast.

Tidy Towns is a community-driven civic movement in which residents and local businesses take charge of cleaning, maintaining and upgrading public spaces when local municipalities fail to provide adequate services. It began as a grassroots initiative, inspired by community members who were fed up with dirty towns and poor service delivery.

Their core activities include collecting litter, organising regular clean-up days, repairing infrastructure, such as potholes, damaged roads, piers and bridges, and maintaining road verges, public parks and signage.‘Making Bedfordview Better’ has repaired more than 1 000 potholes, restored neglected spaces and created employment, thanks to contributions from local businesses.

The ‘Better Bedfordview Commercial Precinct’ initiative has also uplifted the area surrounding Eastgate.
Their mission is to make Bedfordview ‘a great place to live, do business, work, play, shop, attend school, exercise and socialise’.
They ask: “Do you want to be part of a collaborative community initiative that gives residents and ratepayers a powerful, united voice to demand better service, greater accountability and transparency from the municipality?”

Middelburg residents step forward

In Middelburg, the park in Clubville has been taken under the wing of a large company, which prefers to remain anonymous, with the blessing of councillor Elsie Vermooten. There is no littering or loud music, and families enjoy picnics in the park on weekends.
On October 19, the park next to the Tosca parking area was an absolute mess.

That afternoon, Arthur Hill of the Dagpatrollie began cleaning up the park. He undertook to ensure that there are no longer any loiterers in the park, or people who use the children’s playground as their own personal toilet.
Even before the sun had set, a trailer-load of rubbish had been removed from the park.

On October 25, members of the Middelburg Country Club will gather at 08:00 for a garden clean-up day.
The aim is to remove weeds, clear overgrown areas, tidy up existing gardens and prepare the beds for future planting. Individual efforts bring change.

It is easy to say: ‘We pay taxes, so the municipality should do the work.’

Jane Goodall once said, “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make,” while Mahatma Gandhi advised, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”A great example of the difference an individual can make was seen at the Athlone Dam recently. Every morning, Anel Wijma went for a walk with her dog, carrying a black refuse bag and picking up litter.

The Steve Tshwete Local Municipality has not responded to any questions sent during the last three weeks.