Residents of Erasmia, fed up with grime in the area and concerned about the danger to nature conservation and the environment, got together and cleaned the place, removing heaps of trash illegally dumped by uncaring people. The initiative commemorated World Clean-up Day.
This past Saturday (Sept 18), between 8:00am to 13:00pm, the residents got together and cleaned up the area around Schurweberg Road, Van Melle and Coert Streets, Erasmia.
Marique Kirwan of Hoogland Health Hydro said, “My family has been living on Schurweberg Road since 1969. The road has always been beautiful. In the last few years people have started illegally dumping trash, building rubble, dead animals (sometimes human bodies) and garden refuse. It has become worse lately.
We decided to clean it up. The city has been very supportive, giving us loads of plastic bags, latex gloves, PPE’s and volunteers. The other volunteers came from Hoogland, Dockrats farm, Unisa Nature Conservation and other residents living on Schurweberg Road. We found about 200 disposable nappies, 8 dead dogs, 2 dead cats, 3 dead goats, more than a bakkie load of glass and over 200 bags of general and garbage refuse. We would like to request people to rather take their rubbish to the garbage dump or to recycle.”
Alderman Randall Williams, Executive Mayor of Tshwane, said, “In commemorating World Clean-up Day today (Sept 18), we took the Tswelopele clean-up campaign to Erasmia, near Centurion, in partnership with the Hoogland Health Hydro and adjacent landowners.
The Tswelopele clean-up campaign, which seeks to drive collaboration with communities, non-governmental organisations and businesses, has now been hosted in all seven regions of Tshwane.
This means we are now in a phase of supporting clean-up campaigns in areas where the community formally approaches the municipality to join their self-initiated clean-up efforts. In this regard, I was particularly pleased when the City was approached by Hoogland Health Hydro to support their weekend clean-up initiative.
The focus for the weekend was on Schurveberg Road, an area that has been greatly affected by illegal dumping due to the vast open spaces and invisibility of the act of dumping.
The clean-up was supported by 25 volunteers who collected and disposed 200 bags of waste. The group effort was not only impactful but created a sense of awareness within the community, that through collective action, we can keep our City clean.
It was encouraging to note that during the clean-up, some community members pledged their support for the next campaign while others offered to assist to transport waste bags to collection points. I would like to once again thank Hoogland Health Hydro together with students from Unisa’s Department of Nature Conservation for their collective effort in assisting the City to host another successful weekend clean-up.
