Herman Mashaba, Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, is taking on the issue of solid waste in his City with the goal of making Johannesburg one of the cleanest cities not only in Africa, but in the world.

Under the leadership of Mashaba, the municipality launched the A Re Sebetseng campaign, which has seen blitz clean-up operations happening around the City in recent months.

Leading by example

Last week a dedicated team of volunteer council employees lead the way and rolled up their sleeves in a two-hour clean-up campaign at the Metro Centre and across all the City’s 103 buildings in the seven regions.

According to Mashaba, who led last week’s activities together with Ntombi Khumalo, MMC for Group Corporate and Shared Services, this staff-driven A Re Sebetseng is expected to become a monthly event during which City of Johannesburg employees and those from municipal-owned entities dedicate at least two hours on the third Wednesday of the month to clean in all of the City’s seven regions.

Cleaning up open public spaces

In line with these efforts from the City’s current administration the Johannesburg City Parks and ZOO (JCPZ) is partnering with other departments and entities in the City to clean up open public spaces.

The JCPZ recently embarked on a mega-blitz operation in the City with the aim of transforming areas of concern into liveable spaces.

The mega Blitz was launched by the MMC for Community Development, Nonhlanhla Sifumba in the Avalon Precinct, forms part of Avalon Cemetery and the historical Chiawelo Koppie, at the end of January.

Discouraging criminal activity

According to the City the clean-up aimed to rid the Koppie of alien invasive plants and increasing the visibility of the community so as to discourage criminal activities in and around the Precinct.

The clean-up was led by the management and staff of JCPZ, who were joined by members of the public, in partnership with Working with Water, Pikitup and the Johannesburg Metro Police Department. The approximately 150 City staff and EPWP workers worked to cut away long grass, prune trees, pick up litter and remove illegal dumping.