MUNICIPAL workers and community volunteers got their hands dirty at Congella sports field on 31 July when they tackled the mass of rubbish that has been dumped on the site over many years.
The initiative came about after pressure on the Parks Department by the Umbilo Business Forum. According to Tony Blaunfeldt from the Forum, this has been a long time coming, and he had been working on Parks for the past three years to get something done.
The event was co-ordinated by Irene Chetty from the South Durban Basin, who got various departments involved in cleaning up the area.
“We will keep on working on this area until it is clean. It is great that this former sports club is in the news because of a positive initiative this time,” she said.
The one corner of the sports field was littered with rubbish and piles of glass beer bottles, as well as the remnants of old TVs and computers, which had been discarded there by vagrants who had stripped them. Volunteers were also not surprised when a large rat ran from one of the piles of rubbish. Two knives were also found among the rubbish by the cleaners.
“The men are stealing elsewhere and coming here to strip the items. This is a crime generation problem,” said Blaunfeldt.
Some vagrants were still present when the clean up began, and a fire was smouldering in one corner, near some carpets which had been laid down like a bed.
One of the men even helped the group clean up around his pile of belongings.
Ben Madokwe, chairperson of the Umbilo CPF, said it was a great initiative.
“I am happy as this is something I have wanted for a while. I want this sports ground to be available as a recreational facility, to be revamped so soccer players can enjoy a game in the right environment, not surrounded by all this grime. The community should be able use these grounds without being scared. The budget needs to be made available to clean these grounds up to their former glory and Parks needs to come to the party. This is not a place to harbour criminals,” he said.
Roandiswa Makhavhu from eThekwini Municipality, said this would be an ongoing project, and hoped the grounds would be cleaned once a month.
