Beacon Valley mothers and their children are cleaning parks to keep it safe from gangsterism and drugs.
Rashieda Andrews, co-ordinator of Super Heroes of Tomorrow (SHOT), said they want to keep their community clean and safe.
“We can’t have people living in this dirt,” she said.
On Saturday July 24 members of SHOT, Ambassadors for Peace and neighbours to Badminton Park, raked up dirt, put it in bags and buried shards of glass bottles.
The City of Cape Town donated 100 green bags, 100 pairs of gloves, 100 masks, two rakes and 100 aprons to the two organisations to clean the park, bordered by Atletiek Street, Badminton Crescent and Hengelaar Street.
Ambassadors for Peace co-ordinator Fayroez Fisant said they started cleaning their community about three weeks ago and would be educating their neighbours about the benefits of keeping public spaces clean.
“It is no use if we dump on our doorstep because we all live here and we need to keep it clean.
“The council is not going to clean up after us. We have to,” she said.
She said people also dig up sand in the parks, which they use for their construction projects.
“If you want to build, put your hands in your pocket, don’t take from the community,” said Ms Fisant.
Michael Pietersen, councillor for parts of Beacon Valley, applauded the community for taking responsibility for the cleaning of their area, especially the parks, which must be used by children, senior citizens and other residents for recreation and development activities.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic had posed significant challenges to the City of Cape Town, as several staff were off sick and could not fulfil their duties.
Mr Pietersen is concerned about the illegal dumping of garbage at night in parks and open spaces.
“Our greatest challenge in this regard are some community members, who have no respect for others and they have simply no respect for the law,” he said.
He encouraged residents and or organisations to start food gardens on open spaces and take ownership of their parks, which belong to them.
He open spaces which could not be lived on could be used
Mr Pietersen thanked the City parks and recreation, environment and solid waste departments; his office for facilitating this partnership; and those, who took ownership of their space.
