Metro includes Springbok Park in their repair and paint programme
Park in Edelweiss will soon receive a facelift.
Besides addressing maintenance issues, Springbok Park metro will soon start doing repairs.
Ward Clr Wollaston Labuschagne, as well as Edelweiss residents, compared the park in Springbok Street to a forgotten piece of land.
Labuschagne, who is assisting Shabangu with service delivery problems in Ward 76, says the place looks terrible and playground equipment has rusted.
“The park hasn’t seen maintenance for almost three years.
“When the metro starts looking after the park, it will bring with it a positive lifestyle and will give a clean place for children to play,” says Labuschagne.
He claims a tree fell over nearly a year ago, and hasn’t been removed by the metro and the grass is not being cut around the tree stump.
Resident Raymond Catell says he grew up in Edelweiss and used to play cricket in the park.
“The suburb has a lot of young families with children who enjoy playing in the park during school holidays and weekends.
“But the playground equipment has rusted and the metro neglects to cut the grass on a regular basis,” says Catell.
His concern is that the metro has placed fitted dustbins in the park, but never empties the bins and, therefore, refuse is strewn all over the place.
Catell says in the past he noticed a resident placing black bags in the dustbins.
“But when vagrants are digging for recyclable items, they tear the bags and all the refuse is blown all over the park,” he says.
His wish for the community’s children is to have a safe place where they can enjoy the playground equipment, play ball and their parents can have a picnic.
Metro parks department manager, Lindiwe Makubalo, recently visited the site to establish the basis of Labuschagne’s concerns.
“The pictures I received are a true reflection of how the park looks,” she says.
She promised the grass will be cut once a month, tree branches as well and shrubs will be pruned and that the team will start next week to prune the trees and remove the shrubs.
“The department has embarked on a programme to repair and paint play equipment in our parks. The work has commenced in Wright Park, Reedville, Kwa Thema and Dal Fouche.
“Springbok Park was on the list and will be addressed by the end of next week as per the programme,” she says.
