What started as a clean-up of Pierneef Street has quickly turned into a full-fledged dream for the larger Moot.
This after Hennie Mostert and Johan Oberholster decided to take things into their own hands by cleaning up a part of Pierneef Street and a local park after they realised the need. Their idea grew into “Die Moot Projek” (The Moot Project), in which they try to involve and engage residents in the greater Moot.
After recovering from a close brush with death from Covid in 2021, Johan Oberholster decided it was time to give back to his community and improve his neighbourhood’s image. He joined forces with Hennie Mostert, who has been cleaning up the canals for several years and has also completed other cleaning operations with his staff.
From cleaning kerbs to repainting the local playground, building a bench at a local bus stop for the first time in almost 10 years, as well as painting bus stops, traffic light poles and post boxes as well as removing offending stickers and posters from infrastructure, the project aims to bring back glory to the Moot.
They couldn’t stop there though, so they called in the expert help of AfriForum’s greater Moot branch so they could repaint road markers in the avenues crossing Pierneef Street and fix up traffic infrastructure.
Local businesses like Crystal Paints and Elite Renovators lent their knowledge and passion to their community, and residents of 29th Avenue on either side of Pierneef Street raised almost R12 000 to buy road marking paint for this project. AfriForum sponsored the labour for this endeavour.
“Our goal and dream is to make the Moot the cleanest, neatest and best cared-for area in Pretoria,” Oberholster said.
“The response from the community has been fantastic and we aim to give recognition to all who become involved.”
Together with residents, local ward councillors, the Tshwane metro and other local businesses and contributors, Die Moot Projek wants to make their dream come true.
They plan to have more regular clean-up initiatives, such as a hands-on clean-up for World Clean-up Day on September 17, where residents will be asked to fill as many bags with garbage as they can from Stead Avenue down to Pierneef Street starting at Soutpansberg Road.
“Many hands make light work,” said Oberholster. “As founding members, Hennie and I trust that we can light the fire behind this community project.”
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