Pretoria West residents have recently been voicing their discontent at the state of Cronje Park in Pretoria Gardens.
Located on Schurmanns Avenue, the residents around the park say they have had to resort to maintaining the park themselves throughout the years of detriment.
Rekord stopped by the park to take a walk around with one of these disgruntled residents, an elderly pensioner named Johan Berkson who lives opposite the park.
Berkson says he uses his own weed eater and tools to tidy the park when the grass and litter go unattended for long periods.
“I’m so tired of this place,” an irritated Berkson said.
“They need to fix the lawn, pick up the litter, cut around the sidewalks, remove the people sleeping here and making a mess.
“There are so many issues, then I hear they want to spend some billions on an English soccer team. Fix your own country first!”
Fencing around the park has been stripped and sold to scrap yards over the years, the remaining decaying structure has been made home to by some of the local homeless population.
The wiring inside the electrical box in the park was also not spared as well from being ripped out and sold, leaving the park with no lights for night-time activity.
“These persons are reported to use and deal drugs, sleep on the park benches or bring their own mattresses or sleep in the building structure that used to be a change/bathroom.”
Johann said that a fire in 2020 caused permanent damage to the infrastructure rendering it unusable but only to the local homeless, who use the floor as a toilet and dumpsite.
“I counted on Sunday 120 people use the park at that moment with no toilet facilities it’s so bad,” Berkson asserted.
Residents accuse the metro of not doing enough to maintain its park which they believe can be a very beneficial facility for residents and a football field for local youth.
The park’s cricket facilities have eroded over time and have not been upgraded over the years.
Residents also say that when city council do maintenance on the garden, it is often subpar, and litter/grass clippings can be bagged but not removed.
“We pay, pay, pay. Pay for streetlights, the streetlights don’t work; pay for clean-up, they don’t come and clean; pay for services and we don’t receive them.
“All I want is for this park to be fixed, protected, kept clean because it can really be a nice place for everyone living here to use,” Berkson concluded.
The Tshwane metro had yet to respond to requests for comment by our time of publication.
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