Executive Mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba visited Kaalfontein with the A Re Sebetseng team and launched a clean-up in Midrand close to the Yarona Shopping Centre on 20 January.
Mashaba walked around the shopping centre with his team picking up litter while educating the members of the community about the importance of utilising rubbish bins. The team picked up litter throughout the centre’s corridors and parking lot.
The City launched the clean-up campaign last year to raise awareness and to encourage Johannesburg residents to value cleanliness.
“I want Johannesburg to be counted among the cleanest cities in the world, but to achieve this we have to change the mindset of society which depends on government to do everything,” said Mashaba.
He discussed the matter of private-public partnerships and how it could benefit South Africa moving forward.
“All successful nations succeed by the government being a servant of the people with responsibility and accountability, but the key is with the private sector. This is why I took the time to visit all shopping centres because without the business community there is no economy.
“The programme is not an event but is an ongoing initiative, so I’m aware that in order for people to become accustomed to cleanliness we need to do more initiatives like this and ensure that this programme does not only remain a Johannesburg programme but gets adopted by other cities and municipalities in order to gain momentum.”
Mashaba said the clean-up is not a once-off attempt but is a programme which he participates in every month, visiting different communities within Johannesburg to launch the programme, educate people as well as hear community grievances and opinions.
“Pikitup and Miss Earth are some of the organisations who are partners of A Re Sebetseng and we hope that more organisations from the private sector will come on board, just like Adcock Ingram that will be assisting us when we launch this programme in schools in Diepsloot.”
