The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on Dawid Kruiper municipality to urgently review its senseless barring of local goodwillers from beautifying pedestrian islands in Upington.
Last week, a senior municipal official confronted a group of residents, who were busy transforming a neglected pedestrian island in Nelson Mandela Avenue, behind Oranje Noord Primary School, ordering them to stop and insisting that they are making the municipality look bad.
The initiative started about three years ago when Ronel Brou, a resident of Rosedale, decided to rehabilitate illegal dumps in the area, transforming them into gardens. She received praise for the initiative, which soon spread out to other areas.
Two years ago, residents around Rondom Street irrigated pedestrian islands and grew plants at their own costs. The municipality committed to allocate EPWP workers to help them, but this never materialised. From here, the project spanned out to the corner of Schröder Street and Nelson Mandela Avenue, near the old Gordonia Hospital. Even the Mayor, David Kazi, commented on how proud he was of the community and how good their gardens looked, while on an oversight inspection in the ward where I serve as councillor.
The initiative has restored a sense of pride in the town and is helping to make Upington more appealing to tourists, at no extra expense to Dawid Kruiper municipality. It makes no sense as to why the beautification of pedestrian islands is suddenly an issue, after the municipality tacitly condoned this initiative for the past two years.
The DA stated our view in council on Thursday, labelling the senior official’s behaviour as unprofessional and out of place. We also requested Council to instruct him to make a public apology.
Dawid Kruiper doesn’t possess the will or the ability to achieve what the residents of Upington have achieved. Instead of attacking residents for helping, Dawid Kruiper must join hands with the community and work together to fix pedestrian islands, and restore the town’s image as a prime tourist destination.