City employees dirty their hands in mayoral clean-up drive

09 February 2018

 

Sporting overalls and other protective, casual clothing, hundreds of City of Joburg employees took to the streets to participate in the Citywide, mayoral clean-up campaign, #AreSebetseng on Friday, 9 February.

 

For two hours, City employees poured out in the streets of Braamfontein, Midrand, Soweto, Orange Farm, Randburg and other suburbs of the municipality to pick up litter; pulling down illegal advertisements, cleaning up manholes and illegal dumping spots, while ensuring no dirty site is left unturned.

The campaign, which is spearheaded by the Executive Mayor, Cllr Herman Mashaba, is designed to encourage residents of the City to keep their surrounding areas clean. Mayor Mashaba started the #AreSebetseng clean-up campaign several months ago to rid the City of grime and attract investment.

Addressing employees ahead of the clean-up, Mayor Mashaba said he was encouraged to see a large turnout for such an important initiative.

"I have bereavement in my family, but I thought I should join you for a short while to clean-up the suburbs around the Metro centre, as a sign of support. We need to keep encouraging members of the community to stop littering, that's the only way we can win the war against crime and grime," Mayor Mashaba said.

City employees gave the monthly clean-up campaign a new twist, by electing to clean for two hours once a month. Several tons of rubbish was collected by City employees from the Joburg Property Company, Joburg Social Housing Company, Joburg Water, City Power, Joburg Development Agency, Pikitup, JMPD, Metrobus and Joburg Theatre.

It was the first time since the campaign's inception that City of Joburg employees participated in #AreSebetseng. The City Manager, Dr Ndivho Lukhwareni, the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Cllr Nico de Jager, the MMC for Corporate and Shared Services, Cllr Ntombi Khumalo and the portfolio head of Community Development, Cllr Nonny Sifumba, also took part in the employee driven initiative.

Dr Lukhwareni said City employees should not make the monthly #AreSebetseng a once-off campaign. "This employee-driven campaign should be undertaken each month so we can ensure the environment we work in is clean, and that the entire City is clean as well, to enable us to attract investment other opportunities easily," he said.