|
Joburg's various entities have joined forces to maintain the environment in and around the inner city; in the spirit of the Inner City Urban Regeneration Charter.
Pikitup led the onslaught on grime in and around the inner city
THE City's entities have put their skills together, forming a multidisciplinary task force that is tackling environmental maintenance in Region F.
Fordsburg was the first area on the agenda. On Monday, 3 September, the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), the metropolitan police department, City Parks, Johannesburg Water, City Power, Pikitup, emergency management services (EMS), the Department of Home Affairs and the South African Police Service (SAPS) were in the suburb, focusing on a number of issues, ranging from missing manhole covers to waste removal.
Fordsburg's True Road, Main Road, Pine Avenue and Main Reef Road were covered.
Each team was assigned to a specific task. There are four quadrants in Region F – Fordsburg; the central business district; Bertrams, Judith's Paarl and Lorentzville; and Berea. All the quadrants will be visited this week.
"We had a very early start to the [Environmental Management Campaign] and everybody is here supporting the initiative and co-operating with the quadrant leaders," said Keith Swanepoel, from the City's inner city urban management offices.
The initiative was part of urban regeneration and was aimed at ensuring that the environment was maintained by the City. "It's good to see everybody working together on this campaign."
Swanepoel explained that City Parks would cut down trees to make sure that street lights were not obstructed by hanging branches. "They will be focusing on Fountain, Crown and Claire streets."
Pikitup will focus on clearing bins on the streets, sweeping and removing illegally dumped rubbish. There were about 60 people helping the clean up. Speaking at the start of the day, Swanepoel said, "We are going to do as much as we can and we are possibly going to work until late today, doing normal urban management services."
Nelly Molepo, a Pikitup street cleaner in Region F, said: "It is exciting to be a part of this campaign. It's a lot of work and we started very early in the morning but it's a pleasure cleaning up the city. We want to change people's perceptions about this region in particular, because everyone associates it with dirt and all these negative things."
Home Affairs and SAPS also sent representatives to help. "They are doing stop-and-searches and law enforcement. We had a van full of illegal migrants in the area," Swanepoel said. Metro police were responsible for traffic management and the stop-and-searches. Officers issued many traffic fines, especially for parking violations.
City Parks employees were felling trees to welcome spring
JRA workers, dressed in orange overalls, were responsible for "the reinstatement of pavements and manhole covers". "There are many damages on the pavements and by the end of the day, we want to have them looking better than when we came this morning."
EMS officers dealt with shop owners; they checked buildings and shops to ensure that they complied with the law. "We have identified some buildings that are not in anyway compliant. We were looking at things like: does the building have escape routes in case of fire disasters and if the building has fire equipment [fire extinguishers]," said January Molo, an EMS fire inspector.
Workers from Johannesburg Water repaired leaking pipes and replaced missing valve covers. City Power dealt with illegal electricity connections.
"All the [municipal-owned entities] conducted surveys before the start of the campaign, trying to identify what the problems were and also establishing how they would address the findings. So everybody came here today knowing what equipment was needed to complete their tasks," Swanepoel added.
Workers from the roads agency repair potholes on inner city pavements
The initiative would continue and every month the municipal teams would return to continue the maintenance work they had started. "The exercise will continue unabated as a part of the five-year plan for the inner city regeneration," Swanepoel said.
City Park's Region F zone manager, Jerome Ogle, praised the campaign. "This is a very good initiative and City Parks is in full support of it. We believe in taking care of our environment and maintaining it."
Environmental management campaigns of this nature are conducted in the spirit of the Inner City Regeneration Charter, which requires a holistic approach to urban management, according to Shaun O'Shea, the stakeholder management and liaison officer in Region F.
The campaign will be in Berea on Wednesday, 5 September; Bertrams, Judith's Paarl and Lorentzville on Thursday; and finally, the central business district on Friday.
Related stories:
|
