The A Re Sebetseng volunteer clean-up campaign is expanding to the municipalities of Tshwane and Midvaal.

A Re Sebetseng was first launched in Johannesburg in August of 2017, and now A Re Sebetseng Gauteng will now seek to broaden the spirit of community volunteerism to City of Tshwane and Midvaal Local Municipality, and hopefully, across Gauteng.

Partnering for a cleaner province

Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba says, #ARESebetsengGauteng aims to be a non-partisan campaign, bringing together individuals from different communities, works of life and beliefs.

“As such, we had hoped many other municipalities would have heeded our invitation to join this great initiative. We hope that as the initiative grows from strength to strength, many more municipalities will come on board,” he explains.

“I look forward to the partnership between the municipalities of Joburg, Midvaal and Tshwane in helping to build cleaner, safer and more connected communities. The people of our respective municipalities will benefit from our collaboration as we ensure the spirit of volunteerism transcends municipal boundaries in Gauteng,” he explains.

Since the inception of the A Re Sebetseng, close to 28 000 bags of waste have been collected and approximately 21 500 residents have participated across the City through this community led initiative.

Encouraging active citizenry

Commenting on the programme Midvaal Mayor, Bongani Baloyi, says the volunteer campaign is critical to bettering community participation not only in keeping their respective environments clean, but also to encourage active citizenry.

“We want our residents to use their platforms to create the change they want to see. I am excited to start the roll out of #AReSebetsengGauteng across the Midvaal Local Municipality”.

Keeping Gauteng clean

Tshwane Mayor Stevens Mokgalapa adds that the City of Tshwane has always encouraged environmental awareness and getting communities to take charge of keeping their neighbourhoods clean.

“In June 2018 we launched a Tswelopele Clean-Up Campaign which attracted volunteers from around the city and multiple sponsors at inception. It is against this background that we decided to join hands with our peers and adopt the #AResebetseng brand going forward so that we can collectively keep the Province of Gauteng Clean,” he concludes.