#MakeBallitoBeautiful campaign sees residents take matters into own hands

In a bid to #MakeBallitoBeautifulAgain, residents have taken community maintenance into their own hands by cleaning up various roads around the town.

Mark Whitehead and his gardener, Jackson Ngxqwe kicked off the challenge, spending the whole of January 17 sweeping, weeding and trimming the verges on Lorna Avenue.

“We have spent ages lobbying the municipality, I even raised it at the community Indaba but nothing has happened from their side,” said Whitehead.

He posted his day’s work on a community group and the challenge began with Deon Pretorius taking on Leonora Drive the next day.

Aside from the fact that a clean road looks much better, the maintenance also has the practical advantage of protecting the storm water drains.

“All of the sand and trimmings wash into the drain and clog it which is a huge problem if we have flooding. Tropical cyclone Eloise is an example of what we might be faced with one day,” he said.

If a storm water drain becomes blocked then it has to be dug out and reinstalled, which takes both time and money.

“It just makes so much more sense to maintain the roads now, rather than having to constantly fix them in the future at a much higher cost.”

To join in on the challenge, pick a road in your community, clean it up and post the before and after photos with the #MakeBallitoBeautifulAgain hashtag.