Greenbelt areas not in shape
A group of community leaders address the issue of greenbelts that are not being maintained.
Greenbelt areas in Strubensvalley are littered and a hiding place for vagrants – vagrants who go out at night and commit their crimes. And various entities have dealt with City Parks.
With little luck, they say. Ward 97 Councillor Jaco Engelbrecht, Sector 3 chairperson Daniel Smith, Fred-Wade Adams of Ye-Sizwe Security, Hennie Schreuder from and Marnus Mulder from SRT Security took Roodepoort Northsider on a tour of greenbelt areas not in shape.
The area next to Cascades Road is, from what it appears, to be a hiding place for criminals.
The grass is very long and people litter everywhere.
All of the men present had dealt with City Parks about the issue in the past with very little success, they said. “I do not understand how City Parks cannot be aware of certain areas. I mean, don’t they budget for everything then?” Engelbrecht wanted to know.
“At the field next to Cascades Road is also a dam. While the one side is in a bad condition the other side of the dam is kept clean by three households. Schreuder said the dam broke.
“It used to be three times fuller. This place could actually be an asset to the public. We need to revise the infrastructure of this dam. If everything is cleaned, criminals won’t have a place to hide, and they won’t go and commit their crimes at night time.”
Schreuder said some of the residents had told him vagrants bath themselves in the dam right in front of their houses. In Sovereign Road Adams said the police had to remove many vagrants everyday.
On Roodepoort Northsider’s visit Smith came across many cards stolen from a wallet that were lying among the rubbish. Adams said this was proof of criminals living among the residents. “The body corporate of the complex next to the field used to pay R600 per month for the place to be kept tidy, but just as it got cleaned, new rubbish arrived and it was filthy again. Many people come and dump their building rubble here, and this is the first thing residents have to look at when they open up their gates in the morning.”
Adams said they would like to remove the indigenious trees next to Sovereign Road and start cleaning up the place themselves. We would like to do this to emphasise people’s distrust in the city.”
City Parks spokesperson Jenny Moodley said they would investigate the matter. “We would please like to ask all people to refrain from dumping. It is a phenomenon that we are experiencing now and with Pikitup’s current go-slow, it is making matters much more difficult.”
