Several community members, supported by governmental departments and stakeholders, have embarked on an ongoing clean up-campaign at the neglected and vandalised Elijah Mango College of Higher Education.

Starting on Wednesday, January 29, they tackled the entrance and worked towards the buildings with the hopes of getting the entire premises de-bushed.
These and several other townspeople had recently voiced their frustrations about the dilapidated state of the college. One such person eager to see the college in a good condition, Michael Motubatse, donated his garden service machinery and labour for the clean-up campaign

“I donated 10 brushcutters with petrol, some leaf blowers and chainsaws. I would love to see this college revamped into something that will benefit our youth, because they are the future. I had always thought my children and grandchildren would further their studies here, but I still hope that my great-grandchildren will,” Motubatse said.

One of the founding members of the KaBokweni Community Movement, Joshua Malope, said the clean-up campaign is a continuous programme.

“A priority we have is to convene a meeting with the DPWRT [Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport] to have security officials to safeguard the facility. Ultimately, we want the facility to be refurbished and repurposed. The community has great ideas that may assist the government to repurpose the college to benefit everyone. At the moment, we are happy that the government is co-operating with us and we hope they continue to engage us, because we would have soon marched to the Office of the Premier for more attention on the matter. The march was actually a resolution from our last community meeting on January 20,” Malope said.

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The spokesperson for public works, Bongani Dhlamini, said the department is responding to the matter. “The looting at the college has been noted, and multitask teams have been established to attend to the matter urgently, including the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison as the custodian of safety matters. Issues of safety and looting will be discussed. The team is also tasked to deliberate on the future usage of the institution. Currently, the DPWRT has sent a technical team to do an assessment of the entire building,” Dhlamini said.