INSTEAD of pointing fingers at the Kouga Local Municipality, residents in Pellsrus, Jeffreys Bay, recently established a clean-up campaign, to clean their recreational park and streets of overgrown grass and rubbish.
Vaygham Ngindo, who founded the clean-up campaign, said, after a community meeting with Ward Councillor Robbie Dennis, about the uncleanliness of the dumping site in Roman Street, on February 24, that he had decided to take matters into his own hands and on March 20 he began cleaning up the various streets in his community.
He initially began cleaning the dumping site, as it posed a health and safety risk for residents, especially children in the area.
“It is our responsibility, as residents, to keep our community clean,” said Ngindo.
He said, before he began the clean-up project, the streets in his area were filled with overgrown grass and the drains were blocked with grass and sand.
“I decided to start cleaning up my area because I wanted to be the difference that I would like to see in my community,” said Ngindo.
Since the establishment of the clean-up project, many people from the community have joined Ngindo, in a bid to beautify their neighbourhood.
“Every community member needs to jump in and help by cleaning our community, which will teach the children in our area that you can use your own hands to make a difference in the community,” said Ngindo.
Thus far, Ngindo, together with those involved in the project, have worked tirelessly to clean Roman Street and Stompkop Street.
In addition, they plan to clean Dolfyn Street, Steenbras Street and Whale Street soon.
Once they have cleaned the streets in their area, they hope to continue to teach people in the community to start cleaning in front of their homes and to clean their streets as well.
“What is nice about this clean-up project is that people have been using their own tools to work together to clean our streets,” said Ngindo.
In celebration of Freedom Day, on April 27, Ngindo said he planned to invite everyone in the community to help clean the recreational park in Roman Street.
“We must always remember that children have a right to a safe and clean park. They deserve to have an environment in which they can be happy,” said Ngindo.
He further said, during their clean-up project on Freedom Day, their main aim is to avoid pointing fingers at the municipality, but instead look after the community by cleaning up.
“My hope for this project is that we will all work together to have a clean community and continue to try our best to stay safe while cleaning our area,” said Ngindo.
