The Yeoville/Bellevue Community Development Trust (YBCDT) has taken time to reflect on last year’s successes and challenges, in the hope of doing more in the new year.
“The YBCDT played a low-key role last year due to a lack of funds. We are not a community-based organisation with a membership. We are a non-governmental organisation which tries to work with other community-based organisations,” said Mr Maurice Smithers, the executive director of the YBCDT. He said he encouraged other people to join organisations like the Yeoville/Bellevue Resident’s Association (YBRA) and the Yeoville Community Police Forum (YCPF).
“We would like people to support us and what we are doing,” said Mr Smithers. He said the highlight for last year was that people valued the work they were doing, which explained why the community kept coming to them for advice and assistance.
“On a personal level, the highlight for me was that I completed a report for Wits University on the work I have been doing in Yeoville/Bellevue over the past 14 years, five of which have been with the YBCDT,” said Mr Smithers. He said he hopes the report will provide food for thought for people who are trying to organise communities and who are involved in urban redevelopment work.
He added that the organisation continues to be concerned with the lack of effective response by the City of Johannesburg, the Gauteng Liquor Board and the SAPS with regards to issues raised by the YBCDT. “There is a myriad of challenges in Yeoville and Bellevue, and no-one is putting effective mechanisms in place to address them,” said Mr Smithers.
He said the organisation has long called for the establishment of a Precinct or Neighbourhood Office in Yeoville and Bellevue, which could try to address issues on a day-to-day basis and thereby bring government closer to the people.
“One of the key issues bothering people is the lack of effective urban management. There are many things happening in Yeoville and Bellevue, in an unregulated way, and this has negative consequences for the community in some cases,” said Mr Smithers. He named informal trading, spaza shops and the densification of residential space as three examples of the challenges facing the area.
