The city’s public parks were kept clean during the holidays and after the festive season by the well-known organisation, We Care 4 Nelspruit, which regularly steps up to do this job without any financial assistance from the City of Mbombela (CoM).
According to We Care 4 Nelspruit’s founder, Pr TJ Maré, their efforts were part of their ongoing campaign to prioritise cleaning public places where people congregate and at entrances to the city, to ensure visitors find it clean.
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“We are running the Better 2024 Project, during which we aim to make sure we keep the city clean all the time. We are doing this without any assistance from the CoM. We even asked them to give us their timetable to avoid doing the same tasks, but they never came back to us,” Maré told Lowvelder.
He said his team will continue to keep Mbombela clean to attract investors and keep property values from falling. He added that one of the reasons they cleaned the parks is because many people, especially kids, use it during the holidays, and if they are not properly taken care of, they will attract criminals.
“In some parks, the grass was especially long after the rain and needed immediate attention. We are again pleading with the CoM to work with us when it comes to cleaning Mbombela.”
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Meanwhile, the CoM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, said the municipality was aware of We Care 4 Nelspruit cleaning the parks and that it does recognise their efforts.
“The municipality cannot do everything on its own, and the intervention of the private sector to assist is always welcome. As for the timetable, we will liaise with the organisation about where we are going to do maintenance.”