Pretoria North residents living in rubbish

Residents of Pretoria North have lost faith in the City of Tshwane, describing their area as dirty and dangerous.

Heaps of rubbish covered street corners and some streets had potholes causing motorists to swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid the massive holes.

Drugs

The burst water at Wolmer Park was also nothing new for the residents. Dorandia resident Chantelle Botha said she doubted council workers would rush to fix the burst pipe.

She said another problem in the area was drugs. “I don’t even bring my children to this park anymore. It’s not safe here.

They buy drugs around the corner and use it here.” Botha said she found drug needles and empty drug packets scattered in the park

“There is a lot of illegal dumping here. We don’t feel safe in or proud of this area,” she said. Francois Taljaard, who lived on the streets, said he came to the park to collect screws and nuts to sell for food.

“I lost my job a year and a half ago. I clean everywhere I go to collect money to buy bread and a cold drink,” he said.

“The crime is also high here. The place is going backwards; just look at how they litter,” he said. Terence Long, Showen Fox and Uvian van der Coff were out cleaning on the corner of Jopie Fourie and President Steyn Streets.

Human excrement

They said the worse thing they cleaned up was human excrement. The trio started to clean up the streets of Pretoria North a year ago when a local estate agent, Quentin Meyer, started the #Onssalself campaign to clean up the area with the support of AfriForum’s local branch.

“It wasn’t nice to pick up after other people, but it is rewarding to see the area clean,” they said. Meyer approached local businesses to donate to the cause and employed four cleaners who worked from Monday to Friday.

“They clean the parks and streets, cut the grass and pick up the litter,” he said. Meyer said the trio cleaned and collected 800 black bags of rubbish in January.

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Homeless people

He said the homeless people in the area contributed to the filth on the street. “They empty the dustbins on the pavement to look for food and leave the rubbish as is,” he said.

Meyer said the rubbish on the main roads was left for weeks before the council workers came to collect it. Local ward councillor Yolanda Duvenage did not want to comment on the complaints of potholes or uncollected waste.

Instead, she thanked AfriForum North of the Mountain branch for supporting the #Onssalself campaign. City of Tshwane spokesperson Sipho Stuurman said they emptied the swivel bins daily. Stuurman said the council would attend to the root of the problem, which was illegal dumping.

READ MORE: Pretoria north residents clean area after City fails with service delivery

– marizkac@citizen.co.za