Durban — The community of Merebank and eThekwini Municipality worked hand-in-hand to clean up the area and plant trees to improve the neighbourhood.
The Merebank Community Foundation (MCF) said the partnership with the municipality’s parks and recreation department was something they had wanted for years.
An agreement with the municipality was made on Mandela Day. The MCF was allowed to partner with the municipality, and bought palm trees. The municipality in return provided flowers and helped to cut down trees.
The aim of the partnership was to revive the community and make it “alive again”.
The community had many trees, which allowed thieves to remain undetected while attacking people.
Premilla Deonath, chairperson of the MCF, said the environment had no longer been safe for residents, and that businesses were ceasing to operate there because of regular break-ins.
“We want to make the community healthy and earthy again, this place used to be beautiful and we wanted to bring that back.
“We want people to feel like they are in uMhlanga when they come here and most importantly, we want them to feel safe here,” Deonath said.
Deonath expressed her gratitude to the municipality for allowing the MCF to partner up with them, and she said the partnership would be life-changing for residents.
She hoped that the area would return to the good state it was once in.
DA PR councillor Sithembiso Ngema said this was a positive start, after the community had, for a long time, attempted to bring to the attention of the parks and recreation department “how filthy the place was”.
He said the efforts of the municipality were appreciated, and he hoped that it would consistently assist the community.
Ngema said the parks in the area had been in a poor state, and not a place of sanctuary for people, as they were supposed to be. They had become a gathering place for robbers.
“This is truly a right step in a better direction, this place had become unbearable for anyone to live in. There used to be playgrounds where the youth used to keep busy but now all of that is gone and they are focused on drugs, rather,” said Ngema.
He added that the municipality, going forward, needed to respond quickly to such issues because, in terms of social cohesion, a park was a place where people go when in distress, but residents had not been able to do this because they feared for their safety.
This initiative would create job opportunities as it would allow people to again run food stalls.
Naledi Masuku, who opened her food stall business last year, said she had been robbed twice. She said she hoped the initiative would bring about change.
“People are always getting robbed here, I hope this is going to be a good one because sometimes I can’t even get customers because no one wants to come to a dangerous place.
“With the cutting of trees, I think it is going to be better because the robbers will not have a place to hide.”
Daily News