Community rallies to clean up Hillcrest
With the spotlight shining brightly on the growing litter concern in the upper Highway area, the Move ONE Million group jumped in to help clean up the area.
AFTER a spotlight was put on the growing litter problem in the Hillcrest area, the team from Move ONE Million-Upper Highway banded together and held a mass clean up project, in partnership with members from DSW and Metro Police.
Dozens of eager volunteers, wearing bright reflector vests gathered along the M13, between the Gillitts off ramp (exit 28) and the Hillcrest off ramp (exit 31), to pick up trash. The dedicated group collected 108 bags of road side rubbish as well as a trailer’s worth of builder’s rubble. A few days later, Sizwe Mvelase from the KZN Department of Transport collected the bags of rubbish.
“Trucks and cars driving past at a speed of 100km/h felt like a hurricane passing by. We were well organised with our red flags, cones, reflective jackets and our homemade Move One Million clean up signs. What made the clean up more exciting was that DSW organised for Metro Police to send out two vehicles and a group of Metro Police, both men and women, to help us. I was so excited to see them arriving with grateful smiles and huge hearts,” said the group leader of the M1M in the Upper Highway area, Jane Schofield.
The team of civil servants jumped out the vehicles and helped pick up rubbish on the sides of the road alongside the 16 Move ONE Million members. The founder of the organisation, Jarette Petzer, who was in the area during the clean up, also aided in the clean up campaign.
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“We have been doing cleanups in and around Hillcrest and the surroundings areas to teach by example, at grass root levels, how important it is for all of us to join together and make an equal amount of effort for a better future,” said Schofield. “We, the Upper Highway community, are so excited to be part of the Move One Million vision and stand in unity with all the other groups across South Africa.”
The Keep Hillcrest Beautiful Association’s Marge Mitchell applauded the initiative and called on the eThekwini Municipality to back up the initiatives by ensuring the area was kept clean by hosting educational drives.
“This initiative is just awesome. M1M are making waves in our area. The sad part is that littering is not stopping. There needs to be something more than just doing cleanups – as awesome as that is. There has to be some sort of educational drive led by national or provincial or local government. If litter bugs could be arrested and fined, that might be a start,” said Mitchell.
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