Community members from Ward 22 in Polokwane together with the business community joined hands on Saturday morning to clean streets in the area.
The clean-up campaign was an initiative from the Ward 22 Committee in Polokwane led by Mariette Pretorius, the Democratic Alliance (DA) ward councillor.
One the day community members collected waste on the sidewalks of Paul Kruger, Bok and Marshall streets and also in the park adjacent to Church Street.
Pretorius said the initiative aimed to assist Polokwane Municipality in their quest of keeping the city clean. “This was us trying to help Polokwane Municipality to clean-up the city because they don’t have sufficient capacity.
“We want to encourage people to stop littering and participate in these cleaning campaigns. We need to be proud of the city and the only way to do that is to clean it ourselves,” Pretorius said.
Gert Strydom, general manager of an accommodation facility in the ward, said they saw it fit to help with the campaign.
“Cleaning the city and ensuring that it is clean is the responsibility of everyone. We did not hesitate when were told about the initiative. We are operating in this city and we must look after it because it is our future. If we don’t look after it we won’t have a future,” Strydom said.
Bobby Were, Cansa TLC Ward Facilitator who also participated in the campaign said he was happy to see community members rising for a good cause. “We need more initiatives like this because a clean life is a healthy life. We want all members of the community to join hands and clean up the city because it is not clean,” Were said.
Another community member, Matile Mokomanana said she felt she should extend a helping hand to make the city cleaner. “Last week I was in the Tzaneen and it is clean and spotless. I don’t know how they do it but I want my city to be clean just like that and that was one of the reasons I participated in this event,” Mokomanana said.
Story and photos: Herbert Rachuene
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