Tshwane mayor Randall Williams, MMC’s, volunteers take part in clean-up campaign

Pretoria – Do as we do is much better than what we say, according to Tshwane executive mayor Randall Williams, who took to the streets of Moreleta to remove illegal posters and clean up the area on Saturday morning.

Williams was joined by MMC for Community Safety Karen Meyer and her counterpart in the new Economic Development and Spatial Planning MMC, Bruce Lee, as they led a group of volunteers to spruce up the area as part of the City’s Tswelopele Clean-up campaign.

Joined by some residents and AfriForum members, the group started early in the morning removing illegally placed advertising posters from traffic lights, streets poles and walls before putting on their gloves to remove litter from the roads and nearby bushes.

Williams said the campaign was focused on encouraging the culture of volunteerism and promoting environmental care. The goal of the campaign was to inspire communities and businesses to take charge of their environment.

“We have companies, organisations and individuals just putting up illegal advertisements everywhere and even across traffic signs, and that can cause accidents because it is highly dangerous,” said the mayor.

Williams said the City was finding these culprits and even considering increasing the fines because there was a relentless culture of illegal advertising. He said the unit that dealt with these forms of public displays cost the City a lot of money and it would be best for people to follow the right advertising procedures.

“Unfortunately we need to educate our community in Tshwane that when you litter, you affect the whole environment, and it also costs the City a lot of money to employ people and machinery to clean up the areas.

“We have systems in place in the City of Tshwane for waste and refuse collection, but we would encourage people to use that type of mechanism we have put in place because when you have a clean and vibrant city you impress investors looking at the city to say ’wow, we would like to invest in that city’.

“When you have a dirty city it looks like the city is poorly run, so why would an investor want to come and invest their money in a city that is dirty and that gives out the signs that it is poorly run? That is why we are here today to set an example and say ’do as we do’.”

Local councillor Daryl Johnston said Ward 47 was blessed that the community policing forum always helped when they did clean-ups.

He said the campaign was also about bringing various groups to assist and clean up their neighbourhoods and make a difference.

Pretoria News