Lonehill residents Pumela Siwundla (L) and Gerdus Jacobsz take away rubble after cleaning Buchner Crescent Park in the area in Johannesburg, 31 July 2020. Residents formed action group to clean up the park. City Park is demanding the spent on cleaning the park. Picture; Nigel Sibanda
An aspect of South African society often commented on and lamented, in its absence, is community spirit. It’s more than ubuntu, or a village helping the individual, it’s about communities coming together to improve their lives or the places they live in.
So, when it happens, why try to snuff out that flame, even as it sparks? That’s a question we might ask City Parks, which has been involved in an unseemly fight with residents in northern Johannesburg, who want nothing more than to tidy up their local park and turn it into an amenity for them and their children.
Also read: WATCH: City Parks allegedly wants receipts from residents who spent own money on cleaning park
The park was in a pitiful state – full of rubbish and overgrown grass and vegetation. Residents sorted it out, put in playground equipment for children and even hired labourers to help keep it looking good. And all out of their own pockets.
City Parks is in a huff because it says they don’t have permission and has threatened to set the metro cops on them. This could be a model for many city open spaces which have deteriorated over the years – but City Parks is clearly more worried about its image and about its bureaucracy that it is about serving ratepayers. It’s petty and negative.
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