Moot neighbourhood watches clean up cemetery

Two neighbourhood watch groups in the Moot have contributed to the Zandfontein cemetery being cleaner and safer.

AfriForum East Moot neighbourhood watch chairperson, Andries Opperman said his organisation joined hands with the AfriForum West Moot neighbourhood watch “after several members brought it to our attention that people do not feel safe when visiting cemeteries anymore”.

“We ran a survey on Facebook to find out where the biggest need is,” he said adding that the participants had indicated that the biggest need was at the Zandfontein cemetery.

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“Especially the elderly and widows indicated they do not feel safe at cemeteries.”

“Intimidation by beggars that sometimes become aggressive was especially pointed out.”

Operasie Treurgrond was launched at the cemetery this past weekend, said Opperman.

“The primary goal was to ensure calm and safety for visitors and the secondary goal was to hold a foot patrol in the yard and pick up trash at the same time,” he said.

“We decided that because we were going to be there to increase visibility, we could take a few trash bags with us too.”

Opperman said, however, they could not clean the whole cemetery.

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“There was just too much trash to clean up,” he said.

“But at least we could clean up a considerable area.”

“It is not against the law to clean up, so we went ahead and did what we could to make the cemetery a little bit cleaner.”

This clean-up and safety action does not stop there though, said Opperman.

“We aim to tackle other cemeteries in Pretoria next,” he said.

“Apart from visitors not feeling safe, there were also various other complaints from visitors to other cemeteries that informal settlers also used taps to wash themselves.”

“This means that visitors not only feel unsafe but are also exposed to nudity.”

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Local ward councillor of the area Frik van Wyk said the initiative by AfriForum was welcomed.

“We appreciate such initiatives by organisations and individuals a lot,” he told Rekord.

“It makes a huge difference for the metro.”

Van Wyk said when he heard of the clean-up he immediately brought it to the district manager’s attention.

“If organisations or individuals decide to launch similar actions in future in my ward, they are more than welcome to let me know so that I can help with arranging trash bags,” he said.

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