Freedom should be enjoyed but not abused
EDITOR - Never before in the history of Edenvale and Bedfordview have we had as many garbage cans at our disposal and yet our areas are constantly littered with garbage.
Our rates and taxes have never been as high as they are currently, we have a larger police force, an active CPF, a larger compliment of civil servants at our municipal offices, proactive councillors and yet we all feel short-changed when we look at the state of our suburbs.
In the Bedfordview and Edenvale News’ February 26 edition, Clr Heather Hart highlighted the fact that each ward was allocated an additional R1-million rand of ratepayer’s money which was intended “for the purpose of creating a legacy project within the ward, but all funds will instead be spent on street sweeping, litter picking and storm water servitude cleaning”.
Despite paying higher taxes, the majority of the allocation of these taxes is no longer being spent on infrastructure upgrading and cleaning in our areas and therefore, as a resident of Edenvale, I fully support the utilisation of the funds to clean our streets but I would much rather have spent this hard earned money creating a legacy project.
How many of us have heard or discussed the state of some of our bordering towns in Ekurhuleni that ‘have deteriorated beyond repair’?
We all know how quickly an area can deteriorate into a slum if there is no action and how many of us have wondered what will happen at the end of the year when the R1-million fund allocation for cleaning comes to an end?
We have many people moving into our areas who feel that by-laws only apply to others.
In the last two months alone, we have read in the NEWS about taxi drivers behaving in the most belligerent manner, people operating business’ illegally in residential areas, illegal dumping, illegal posters stuck on every road sign, litter is constantly thrown out of vehicle windows, loud and irritating music blasting from every second vehicle, traffic lights and signs are not obeyed, the list is never ending and yet we all want to enjoy living in a quiet, clean street and suburb.
There are many of us who feel that the only way to escape all of the above is to hide behind our high walls and leave the dirty work for others to attend to but in reality, this is not the answer to our current problematic situation.
If we want to leave a legacy for our future generations to enjoy, then we must ensure the by-laws are upheld and we need to get involved with projects that upgrade our community.
The by-laws are available on the Ekurhuleni website, we should all have the police sector vehicle telephone numbers in our vehicles as well as the telephone stand and we should all have contact details for our ward councillors for advice.
If every person picked up the litter directly in front of their houses or picked up the litter while walking their dogs then perhaps in future we would have funds available for legacy projects.
With freedom comes responsibility so let us all make a difference no matter how small.
SHARON LENDRUM-FRITTELLI,
HURLYVALE.
Letter received on March 7.
