Residents fed up with pigsty church habits

Jukskei Park resident Murray van Zyl is fed up with cleaning up after church members who allegedly leave Robyn Park in a pigsty state week after week.

He said he and his team had rolled up their sleeves on October 1 for yet another clean-up.

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“We removed 18 bags of rubbish from the area last week. We had to remove a dead goat from the river and also had to clean up human foreskins from the rocks. We had to remove dead chickens floating in the river. There was human waste as well because they use the river banks as a toilet,” he claimed.
“We have spent hundreds of thousands on the park and much of it is slowly being destroyed by the church groups – swings being broken, the zip line torn down, and masses of litter left behind every weekend. Now the residents can no longer use the park.”

He added his children did not want to play in the park due to men and women allegedly exposing themselves. “I am almost 2km away from the site. I wake up most Saturdays and Sundays because of drums and screams. They usually start at 04:30.”
Van Zyl said he had spoken with the church’s authorities during a community meeting, however, his complaints seemingly fell on deaf ears.
“Many of the traditional healers agreed that it was disgusting. But you have to remember that these people are not local so they don’t care about what the place looks like when they leave. Then they come back the next week and as if by magic, it’s clean again because my staff clean there on a Monday morning.

“We have begging the councillor for at least a year to resolve this but they are all playing politics. The councillor for Ward 115 Mark van der Merwe has told me that this is not his problem as the ward falls in [Ward] 106. Yet, this problem affects most of 115.”

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Van Der Merwe confirmed the area was not part of his ward when asked for comment. “It has been explained that the situation is not as simple as it seems to resolve. There is an overarching law in the Constitution that allows for religious freedom. Having said that, three councillors are working with multiple entities and organisations across multiple wards to put together a solution.”

The councillor for Ward 106 Chris Santana acknowledged receipt of the Review’s query and promised to revert with more information but it was not received at the time of going to print.
Efforts to contact the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department’s spokesperson Xolani Fihla for comment were fruitless.

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Jukskei Park family has had enough of church rituals at the river