Community tidies up Pongola cemetery

While municipalities’ service delivery is deteriorating in almost every corner of the country, more and more communities are stepping in to stop the increasing decay and deterioration. In KwaZulu-Natal, AfriForum members from the town of Pongola have now also had enough of this local municipality’s poor service delivery and decided to tackle this ineffectiveness here in a practical way. That is why, last week, a cleaning operation was started at the local cemetery.

The area experienced high rainfall during December, but since the uPhongolo Local Municipality did little to no maintenance of the local cemetery, AfriForum’s Pongola branch decided to jump in and clean the site themselves.

According to Marilda Schoombee, AfriForum’s Pongola branch chairperson, the clean-up operation also offered a golden opportunity for family members to clean up the graves of loved ones under safe conditions. With this project community members cut and raked grass and removed rubbish.

“This project forms part of the Pongola branch’s sustainable projects and we plan to continue with this. We invite the community to also become part of these initiatives,” adds Schoombee.

“AfriForum notices daily how service delivery is deteriorating and that communities themselves are taking the initiative to take over services, which are actually the responsibility of local authorities. A powerful do-it-yourself approach is definitely taking hold here in Pongola and elsewhere in the country. The power of communities that work together simply cannot be suppressed by ineffective politicians and officials,” explains Eugene van Aswegen, AfriForum’s Provincial Coordinator in KwaZulu-Natal.

Become part of AfriForum’s Pongola branch today and get involved in projects that directly affect your community. Contact the Pongola branch chairperson, Marilda Schoombee, on 082 874 2340 for more information.