'People need to take pride in their community’
Joe Slovo Park residents are urging their fellow residents to pick up after themselves and stop what they feel is a culture of illegal dumping in the area.
Residents like Thando Jika say it’s time to stop blaming the City for chronic illegal dumping in the area and start taking responsibility for keeping the streets clean.
“It is not too late for our community. We can make this place beautiful and not have this issue of dumping. If we all put our hands together and stop this culture of just throwing our rubbish in the streets, we can change things here. I am tired of people blaming the City. We need to take accountability for our own actions. I am calling on all residents to do their bit.”
Community leader Lazola Gungxe echoed Mr Jika’s sentiments.
“People need to take responsibility and pride in their community. In Democracy Road, we have a dumping hot stop that no matter how many times it is cleaned by the City, the very next day, it is full of rubbish. We need residents to call each other out on this issue. We can’t keep fighting the same thing all the time. We can do so much as Joe Slovo if we just stop the dumping and take care of our community,” he said.
Sicelo Khova, who has lived in the area for 11 years, said that he could not stand by any longer and watch his community deteriorate further.
“Myself and a few other residents have started informally going door to door trying to raise awareness about this issue. It has been something we have been talking about for a long time and this year we decided to finally take matters into our own hands.
“On weekends, we just walk around our community and try to make people aware of the health risks of dumping. This is also an issue of safety because residents have to walk in the road because the pavements are covered in rubbish. Our children are not safe. I urge residents to join our movement.”
Another community leader, Sibongile Kofi, said: “We have residents who are always willing to stand up and help with this cause. As community leaders, we also do our bit to work with the City and other contractors to help alleviate the problem.
“There are campaigns people run in the area to educate people, and we often have trucks every other day to remove the rubbish. But residents need to work with us. Call people out for dumping illegally and we can make our community beautiful.”
