LANSDOWNE
TUESDAY 8 December 2020 | Tel: 021 910 6500 | Email: post@peoplespost.co.za | Website: www.peoplespost.co.za
@ThePeoplesPost
People’s Post
FLAMINGO HEIGHTS
Cleaning the streets SAMANTHA LEE-JACOBS SAMANTHA.LEE@PEOPLESPOST.CO.ZA
@SAMANTHA_LEE121
A
EPWP workers Marelda Juries and Adam Jaftha.
group of 19 residents have been employed under the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to raise and maintain the dignity of residents living in the Flamingo Heights informal settlement. Ward 60 councillor Mark Kleinschmidt says the goal is to reintegrate this settlement back into the Lansdowne community. “My greatest aim is to raise the dignity and respect because these are human beings. They are mothers, fathers and family members. I believe in rather investing in children and preparing a child than repairing an adult. Unfortunately some of our adults are already lost. Lost to society, to the vulnerability of social evils, hence the participation in anti-social behaviour,” he says. “Flamingo Heights informal settlement is considered the scourge of Lansdowne. Many people look down on them with condescension and disrespect. I want to raise the bar because every single resident has a heart and I believe change transforms cold hearts of stone into hearts of flesh and we are succeeding. Yes, we know there are the social ills of ‘shebeening’ and drugging and prostitution. We want to provide an alternative to a life of degradation and degeneration, hence this kind of ongoing project.” Marelda Juries, a resident and one of the EPWP workers, says she has been part of the project for the past few years. She adds they are responsible for sweeping and collecting dirt. They also wash and disinfect the paving. Situated in Flamingo Crescent, the workers also clean the surrounding streets including Lansdowne and Kanarie roads. “We have now also started talking to people on how to
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keep their toilets clean. We guide them with the chemicals and assist them to pick up whatever needs to be picked up so that the environment where they stay, stays clean,” says Juries. “Sometimes people come here from the outside with trollies and sort it out, then take it maybe to the scrap yard, but sometimes they just leave it there. But the focus is on the park because this is where the children play. We see that the drains are unblocked and the overflows are stopped.” She along with several others have been living in the informal settlement since 2002, after people were relocated from bridges in and around the Lansdowne area. With the establishment of a few informal structures on the piece of land, the numbers quickly grew to over 570 currently living there. In 2012, the City of Cape Town funded a re-blocking initiative that situated the structures in a way that would allow vehicles to enter the settlement. It was completed by February 2015. This was also done to better accommodate families, provide electricity and sanitation and have access to an official postal address (“Naming rights” People’s Post, 17 February 2015). Kleinschmidt says his involvement started when he was elected in 2016. Thanks to the Mayoral Urban Regeneration Project (Murp) funding, they are able to implement programmes at the settlement, including annual hand-washing day, antidrug campaigns and awareness around Covid-19 and other health conditions. “Cleanliness is next to Godliness and I believe if Flamingo Heights is kept clean it will automatically raise the dignity and respect of every individual that comes here,” he says. “There are people who come here from the outside and try to break things down, but luckily, the community are standing together against that.”
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