War declared against garbage in the west

Several clean-up actions have been launched in the west of Pretoria since the beginning of the month.

And there is more to come.

“Residents of Pretoria deserve to live in a clean area,” said local ward councillor Elma Nel.

Nel, along with metro officials, had launched two clean-up actions in ward one recently.

In addition to these two, Nel and residents also holds a clean-up campaign on every second Saturday.

She said they then clean up the area for two hours.

“I think it is great that residents in my ward are still proud of their area,” Nel said.

“Even though they have full-time jobs and stress of their own, they jump in and get involved with our projects.”

Despite this, Nel said they had trouble keeping up with illegal dumping in the area.

“When we clean an area, sometimes it only takes two days before the area looks exactly like it did before the clean-up,” she said.

“You would be surprised how many garbage disposal bags we fill up in only two hours.”

She said that they also urged residents to bring suggestions to the table as to where they wanted the area to be cleaned.

However, she added that adults should set an example for younger generations.

“Remember you expose your children to everything you do,” she said.

“So if you drive and throw something out the window, remember that they do see it.”

Residents welcomed the initiative with open arms.

Another clean-up action was held in West Park by the DA central constituency on Saturday.

“The clean-up was not only limited to us, but members of the community also joined in to help,” DA constituency chairperson Katlego Makgaleng said.

Among the cleaners was the chairperson of Unified Informal Traders of Tshwane Ramodike Morema, pastor James Ndlovu, who is also a stand in councillor for ward 3 and member of parliament Mbulelo Bara among many others.

“This clean-up was of a great benefit for the community because residents can now use a previously polluted space they couldn’t use before,” he said.

“There are many benefits like saving endangered species, clean air, fewer hazards and habitable space.”

Makgaleng said this clean-up was not their first one.

“We had many others in places such as Salvokop, Pretoria West and the City Hall,” he said.

“We encourage community members to join us in these kinds of initiatives and also stop littering and illegal dumping.”

This coming weekend, a clean-up action was planned by the FF Plus in Danville.

They would meet in front of Danville SPAR on Saturday at 08:00.

Residents were urged to join them.

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