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Cleaning up Masi

A dirty area creates a poor impression and that is why a Masiphumelele resident is doing whatever she can to ensure that her area is presentable.

Zanyiwe Mavubengwana says her area, Site 5, has deteriorated over the years and became very dirty and that living there has become unbearable.However she is isn’t sitting on her hands and waiting for someone to do something. To start the ball rolling and clean up her area, she organised a cleanup on Saturday 12 January.

Over 25 people showed up to help, including staff from Project Noordhoeked, players and coaches from Noordhoek Football Club, and representatives of Ocean View’s One Kennel At A Time, Revamp The Valley and Angels Resource Centres, among others, who understand the benefit to the entire Valley of a trash-free Masi.

Mavubengwana says: “Site 5 is so dirty – from the entrance and as you go deep it to the area it’s just heaps of dirt all the time Every corner is a dumping spot and it doesn’t portray our area in a good way. Not only does it look bad but it makes staying here unbearable. The dirt, the smell, is just not on. I decided I had to do something because I just got fed up of the situation. I didn’t want to wait for others to do it, so I did something about it.”

Illegal dumping is a huge problem for the residents and Mavubengwana says the people with vegetable stalls also add to the problem.

“We don’t have a proper place to dispose of all our rubbish and people end up throwing rubbish wherever. This is very unsightly, and it has created a lot of problems. Now we are dealing with a rat problem. The rats are so big because they feed from the illegal dumping. You won’t believe that I don’t have a fridge because the rats ate it. The first time they ate the fridge I fixed it; the second time they ate it, it was so bad I couldn’t fix it, I had to throw it away. The rats are as big as your foot. We can’t live like this. I had to organise a cleaning. If we don’t look after our area no-one will,” she says.

Revamp the Valley has connected a professional rat catcher to Mavubengwana to do a walk-through of Masi so they can better understand the issue and formulate a plan to deal with the problem, in conjunction with the City of Cape Town. They have also asked Lizelle Coombs of Angels Resource Centre to bring their Big Waste Wake-Up entrepreneur development programme to Masi.

Coombs says there are many opportunities for entrepreneurs to make money very quickly through recycling.

“We are excited to introduce the Big Waste Wake-Up programme in the Valley and hope to secure a sponsor who will invest in our people so that we can grow the programme faster and create much-needed jobs. Angels Resource Centre has been training and mentoring entrepreneurs in small Northern Cape towns in “waste-to-business” initiatives and is now expanding that to this region, hosting a workshop this week with Masi residents interested in becoming recycling entrepreneurs,” she says.

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