Students and residents clean-up Alexandra

Volunteers, conservation activists and residents in Alexandra got down in the dirt to clean Jukskei Park 2 yesterday, following several protests about unsafe parks and illegal dumping.

A group of University of Johannesburg (UJ) students, in partnership with Clean City SA, Bubele Afrika, Shomang Sebenzani Environmental Cooperative and Pikitup, also encouraged more action and participation from the residents on the climate crisis.

According to UJ student Lefa Selepe, when they were given an assignment to choose a community where they would teach residents about protecting, restoring and regreening the planet one community at a time, Alex seemed like a perfect fit. “The main purpose of the assignment was to come up with a campaign that would encourage communities to regreen the planet, which is one of the main objectives of Justdiggit, the organisation that works with UJ,” he said.

“I grew up in Alex and I’ve seen how the parks in the area are no longer safe and clean for people to relax, and children to play around, which is why we came up with Kleena4Change.”

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He said after many failed attempts to get the community together they came up with the idea of an aerobics session to draw people together and then to clean up. “At the end of the day we want people to understand that they don’t have to go spend money all the time to go to the gym when there are facilities that are clean and easily accessible for everyone to use.”

Clean City SA’s founder and chief executive, Dalu Cele, said it was amazing to see people doing their part to stop pollution. “The river here is dirty. There are papers and plastic around the riverbanks that eventually goes into our water waste and then affects the environment,” he added.

“By cleaning here we can see the potential this place has and how beautiful it can be. “But now kids cannot swim or play in the water because it’s dirty, so our job is to protect the environment of which water is key.”

Shomang Sebenzani Environmental Cooperative director Francina Rammabi and Pikitup manager for environmental education awareness Smith Kelomo pledged to extend the initiative to surrounding areas to encourage residents to keep Alex and the river clean.