Ramaphosa residents roll up their sleeves for a cleaner environment

Armed with cleaning tools, residents took matters into their own hands.

Hard at work, residents of Ramaphosa joined hands to clean their area on June 11.

To keep their area clean and neat, residents of Ramaphosa informal settlement (Road Reserve) took it upon themselves to clean their area on June 10 and 11.

Armed with spades and brooms, the community members spent their mornings picking up litter and removing weeds around the informal settlement.

According to one of the community members, Diliza Ngxabazi, they collectively decided to clean their area to keep the environment clean.

“For the sake of our well-being, getting rid of the rubbish on the streets will help reduce health hazards. As the community, we are faced with many service delivery issues such as illegal dumping. Illegal dumping sites in our area have increased, causing rodents, flies and even life-threatening diseases to our health.”

To try and deal with illegal dumping sites, Ngxabazi said a dumpsite, which was close to a local church called Flock of God Ministry, was recently cleared and fenced off by the church.

Kenneth Ngale at the premises of the church where the illegal dumpsite has been fenced off to prevent people from dumping.

“We are grateful to the church and by showing support we will also monitor the area so that no other dumping spots are initiated,” he said.

Another community member, Kenneth Ngale, said: “The illegal dumping site started overflowing after people started getting lazy to go and dump their rubbish at a designated spot situated on the outskirts of the informal settlement.”

Speaking on behalf of the church, Mxolisi Mathafeni, said they were affected by the dumpsite because during their Sunday services they would often close windows to avoid the odour outside.

“On weekdays we also have a soup kitchen where we feed the community soup and bread, so the smell made it hard for us to carry out our duties,” Mathafeni said.