Better Bryanston pushes for cleaner and safer streets
As Better Bryanston celebrates its first anniversary, the organisation says restoring neglected spaces and preserving the suburb’s dignity remain top priorities.
“Bryanston is facing challenges that impact our community’s well-being, growth, and future.”
These words were from Leonore Kruger, of Better Bryanston, when the non-profit organisation hosted the information and networking session at Bryanston Country Club on May 14. The session brought together residents and supporters as the organisation reflected on its first year of operations and ongoing efforts to fight urban decay in the suburb. “We have many squatters living along Winnie Mandela Drive, and that’s mainly because of overgrowth. We do feel for them, but I don’t think we can allow that in our neighbourhood.
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“There’s also the issue about hijacked houses, and I, personally, would like to thank JMPD and the council for what they’ve done to rectify the issue with the hijacked houses in Bryanston. Bryanston also suffers from densification. Every single property, the large properties, are all turned into complexes, and, in many cases, high-density complexes. That just adds to the pressure on everything that we are dealing with.”
Founded in May 2025, Better Bryanston was formed to restore public spaces through cleaning, greening, and maintenance initiatives. The organisation has focused much of its work on problem areas, including the intersection of Main Road and Winnie Mandela Drive, where illegal dumping, littering, and overgrown verges remain a major concern.
Kruger added that their mission is to restore the sense of community. “We want to live in a beautiful suburb that we can all proudly call home and enjoy for our own wellbeing. We refuse to live in an area that’s not clean and tidy and we would like to provide hope to our community, so that Bryanston maintains its market value.”
Better Bryanston chairperson Joyce Tshabalala commended the organisation’s leadership team for the progress made in improving key arterial routes in the suburb. “Better Bryanston has been going on for a year now and we are pleased that, in this birth month of ours, we will be celebrating a full year. Our team of six directors has done marvelous work in the arterial routes in Bryanston.
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“We started Better Bryanston without a plan, we did not have a funding strategy. Our main income has been coming from households and individuals. We have also received some corporate sponsors and through Byron Thomas, they have put us in touch with various attorneys, who obviously do all the conveyances of properties.”
Tshabalala added that they do clean-ups every Friday, but are looking forward to doing clean-ups twice a week, which would require more money and volunteers. “Weekly we spend about R5 000 on labour, so that would be R10 000 per week if we were to increase the clean-ups to twice a week. We would appreciate your help in making this possible and we appreciate all that you have done for us. Your generosity and support does not go unnoticed.”
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