Randburg CBD gets cleaned up
Ward 102 councillor Lucinda Harman stated that her job is to improve the lives of Randburg residents in her ward, and that the change she is attempting to effect is what motivates her.
Lucinda Harman, Ward 102 councillor, collaborated with various city entities on the first of numerous clean-ups of the Randburg CBD.
Entities such as Crum, JMPD, Pikitup and other environmental health organisations worked together in the interests of making the CBD a better place.
The goal was to clean and remove people from highjacked buildings, as well as to relocate homeless people to shelters. Three people were detained for drug possession, and several more unlawful vendors were removed.
City of Johannesbug manager of service delivery in Region B Auriel Kobola explained that their main purpose is to do monitoring and empowerment of all service delivery defects around Randburg – be it informal traders – they need to educate them on what is right and wrong.
“If they want to sell, there is a process they must follow, and they cannot be anywhere at any time. Even taxis cannot park anywhere; they have been granted a large space. We are attempting to educate and empower people. We also spoke with the recyclers because they are not supposed to be in a public place because the by-law does not allow it.”
He added that they will keep doing these operations in Randburg because there is still more that needs to be done.
“We are busy rejuvenating this place. Randburg should go back to its glory days and the only way we can do that is to educate our people. We are not here to fight with anybody; we are here to give out as much information as possible.”
Homeless people and other recyclers refused to move claiming that they had nowhere to go. They were forcibly removed and their belongings confiscated.
Kobola concluded that they will keep a close eye on Randburg and they are planning on bringing the Department of Home Affairs department to check and verify documents and other organisations to check on the spaza shops.
Harman applauded the operation and stated that things had been left to deteriorate for a long time.
“This is our CBD; it should attract tourists and be our business hub. But now it is just a broken-down place; there are drugs and prostitution; it is also filthy and that is not what a CBD should be. We want to turn things around and change it for the better.”
She added to keep it clean she will make sure that JMPD does night patrols to ensure sure there is no one sleeping around.
“We are going to repair the fences; we will visit a couple of times a week. We are not doing this as a once-off because we want to change things around and we have to keep doing it and enforce the by-laws.”
Two days later a second clean-up (war-on-waste) was held at Randburg by Harman and Pikitup.
“We can make a difference every day by going the extra mile and priding ourselves in the work we do. Thank you Pikitup Randburg for your commitment to cleaning up our ward. This is Ward 102 where we get things done and make a significant difference.”
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