A small group of Mamelodi East residents have taken it upon themselves to put a stop to crime, by building a park at an illegal dumpsite, where nyaope addicts have been robbing people for years.
The dumpsite is located near Koos Matli Primary School, and the group has been working tirelessly since the beginning of the lockdown to ensure the park is up and running.
Thabo Kutumela, who is one of the 15 in the group, said people have been throwing rubbish there for a long time now, and many abandoned babies have been found there as well.
He said people often throw away dead animals and syringes there, which posed as a health hazard for the community.
"We come here everyday, we work and guard it so people don't ruin it and steal things. If this project can become a success, it will benefit the entire community at large for years to come," he added.
Another group member, Isaac Makhura, said they planned for the playground to have a gym area, a vegetable garden and other community activities.
The dumpsite has a small grave site nearby, and an old large refuse bin where criminals sleep and hide to prey on people that pass by.
Patrick Chuene, who also often helps the group, said a lot of people go through the park and come across many unspeakable things.
He said the vision they had for the park was to get the community together where they can exercise or even have events once the pandemic is over.
"Community members were complaining that people were getting stabbed there and sometimes even babies get thrown away there. Nyaope boys spend their time there smoking their drugs behind the bushes," he said.
They said they would also need swings, grass, fencing and paving for some of the area, which will cost them a lot of money.
The school’s principal, Ngoepe Ngwako, said they supported the project, and he said the park was a brilliant idea.
"The park comes with long term solutions and maybe when done, we as the school could use it for the students as well."
He claimed that ever since the group started working on the park, there has been less crime and the school is no longer disrupted by the rubbish that got inside their premises. Ward councillor Vusi Masemola, who has been invested in eradication of illegal dump sites, said the group was on the right track.
“The municipality has been running the Adopt a Spot project and in terms of their guidelines it's clear these residents are taking good care of this area. We would like to see this type of mindset in all of our community members and we should always support our own,” he said.
Masemola suggested that they use a large portion of the space for agricultural purposes so that they can be able to generate money for themselves.
"Agriculture has huge potential in growing communities and uplift them as well."
Kutumela said they recently received trees, which they have already planted, and managed to erect a tap to water all the plants.
He said the group volunteered their time and hard work and some of them spend their time guarding the park when they come back from work.
Achieving their goal has proved to be a challenging task as the group lacks necessary resources and work from their own pockets.
"Our biggest challenge here is getting things like gardening material and grass. We plan the park to be quite large and just want the children in our community to be safe and have somewhere to play," he said.
The City was yet to comment on the project.
Pretoria News