Residents from the ‘Sammas’ are taking back their community from criminals
The 'Sammas' is an initiative started by Elizabeth Ruiters and Linda Claaste to get their streets back in the small area the community.
“They always look at us at the ‘Sammas’ as a community of hand-outs, now we are claiming back our community, we want to be independent,” said Gadija Hendricks-Coetzee; the street representative for Boloberg 1 in Eldorado Park, Extension 2.
An initiative started by Elizabeth Ruiters and Linda Claaste to get their streets back in the small area the community knows as the ‘Sammas’.
Sammas consist of Boloberg 1, Boloberg 2 and Balaleberg Street. The initiative is for each street to have two representatives. “The residents here come to us as representatives to give us any complaints like sewage issues, electricity issues, anything along those lines, and then we just escalate it to the relevant entities and leaders who can assist us with the issue,” said Hendricks-Coetzee.
On February 20, the residents had their first clean-up which motivated them to continue every week. Due to the crime in the area, the residents first made sure to remove any long grass which was allowing criminals to hide in.
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Cheryl Richardson, Ursula Daniels, Denzil Louw, Francis Richardson, Ronelle Dalton, Charlotte Rose, Charlotte Abrahams, Dephney Engelhof, Francis Engelhof, Mitchel Dalton, Felicity January, Natalie Govender, Linda Claaste, and Elizabeth Ruiters are the residents who are involved in the initiative.
“We are trying to get the community together, we want the youth to be doing something constructive in our area. We do not have finances at the moment but we are collecting little money from each household so that when we need the youngsters to cut the grass, we can at least give them something for it,” explained Hendricks-Coetzee.
The residents will also be starting a weekly clean-bin initiative where they will be paying the unemployed youth in their area to clean the bins once a week.
Hendricks-Coetzee added: “We are currently using our equipment from our homes to make this initiative work. We are also gathering a patrol team who will be walking women who take taxis early in the mornings. We need to patrol in our area so that the crime can stop.” The street representative also mentioned that soon they would also like to start a soup kitchen where they can feed the children in the area.
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