Following a wave of looting in the area, local residents are “taking back” their community with a clean-up initiative.
After days of looting and violence, the neighbourhood was surprisingly tranquil.
Volunteers cleaned up the area’s vandalised shopping centres and roadways.
Residents united in the streets of 1632 with simple equipment like brooms, shovels, gloves, trash bags and spent some or all of their day cleaning up the community as a result of days of looting.
A diverse crowd of residents, volunteers, community leaders, and public officials got together for one purpose: to restore the community’s dignity.
According to the organiser, Bishop Mike Mtshali, the centre was swamped and littered, making it difficult to clean.
“When a community is blighted and trashed, people don’t respect it and people don’t feel good about living there. More than that, it’s just horrible.
“We, as a community, were deeply affected by the looting, so we decided to lend a helping hand because we couldn’t do anything to safeguard the looted locations and never imagined such a thing to happen in our neighbourhood.”
“Participating in a neighbourhood clean-up especially after the looting chaos can be a great way to raise awareness in our community that we can be united and fight all the social ills the area is facing. This has also fostered a sense of unity and responsibility for keeping our homes and public spaces safe and clean. With these visible results we hope to increase community members’ interest and involvement in reducing waste and preserving the community,” said Mtshali.
