Operation Hloekisa to clean up Alex
JOBURG - City of Johannesburg's Region E director Liziwe Ntshinga-Makoro launched a cleaning operation in Alexandra.
In a media briefing, attended by numerous City department representatives at Region E’s head offices in Sandown, Ntshinga-Makoro announced the City’s mammoth Operation Hloekisa: a clean-up campaign aimed at clearing out Alexandra of all the garbage that has become synonymous with the township, including the building rubble and rodents.
She said their objective was to ensure that action was taken by the community to make a difference in their environment. “We encourage communities to voluntarily take out their rubble,” she added.
The 30-day campaign commenced on 5 August, and Nshinga-Makoro stated they wanted a sustainable community involvement plan to make sure that Alexandra would never be the same again.
She said the initiative stemmed from the 67 minutes for Mandela Day. “We felt that in the spirit of making every day a Mandela Day, we must continue working beyond the 67 minutes.”
The first phase of the Operation Hloekisa, a Sesotho word meaning ‘make it clean’, would focus from 1st to 22nd Avenue. The plan was to extend it to the greater Alexandra township. Ntshinga-Makoro explained that the plan involved sweeping and cleaning of all the streets in Alexandra, one by one.
She said various departments will join hands with communities in this clean-up campaign.
“An education campaign will also be conducted during the operation which will embrace the theme, Towards the Promotion of a Cleaner Environment,” she said.
The community was encouraged to take out all their unwanted material in their properties and put it on the pavement on Wednesdays. “We have sourced a truck to collect all those things – this includes building material.”
She added they had already started with a mini-project in 13th Avenue, which they will use as the model for Operation Hloekisa.
Ntshinga-Makoro said they wanted communities to take the lead in keeping their environment clean. “We want to educate them about hygiene, health and about water usage. We want to sensitise them on the problems of illegal dumping and to avoid wasting water,” she concluded.
