Employment for Msawawa community members

City of Johannesburg with City Parks and Zoo have given 31 men and women from the Msawawa community employment.

The river clean-up will run for a duration of four months in which the daily activities of the employees will be cleaning of litter and debris, grass, reeds control as well as alien invasive plant control from the river and riparian areas along the river. Pikitup will then come and pick up the waste collected to aid the maintenance process of keeping the area clean.

”This is to benefit the community as they will have cleaner water flowing through the area. We are hoping to create some job opportunities with this project.We hope that the community will work together to maintain the area after the clean-up has concluded,” said Johannesburg’s City Parks and Zoo’s representative Kgautshe Mofokeng.

Community leader Hani Phalanndwa said he was happy about the clean-up, but that it has taken several months to get help from the City. ”We still have a problem with leaking taps – sometimes the taps are not even working. We need Joburg Water to help,” said Phalanndwa.

He wants the river and surrounding area cleaned-up from as much rubbish as possible. He also wants the community to assist Pikitup and afterwards maintain the area.

Ward 96 Councillor Matome Mafokwane also helped during the clean-up on 11 March. He explained that for him it was important to educate the community about caring for their environment and their surroundings.”We cannot have one community member cleaning and another member polluting – it will not help anything,” added Mafokwane.

Unexpected visits will be made by Ward 96 councillor Mafokwane and the City to keep track of the progress of the project.