Soweto residents encouraged to live clean, healthy lives

Monday, July 18, 2016

Soweto – Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has encouraged Soweto residents to live clean and healthy lives.

“Our poverty levels should not distract us from the fact that we would like to live clean lives and healthy lives like everybody else,” said Minister Sisulu on Monday.

The Minister joined more than 500 volunteers, in Soweto, in a clean-up campaign to celebrate International Nelson Mandela Day.

Minister Sisulu’s day started in Dube Hostel, where she rolled up her sleeves and joined community members in cleaning the area. She then visited a dilapidated spot in Vilakazi Street, where she also helped in the cleaning process.

Speaking to journalists, Minister Sisulu said that they’ve chosen the spot in Vilakazi Street because many tourists knows that Madiba lives somewhere there and they would like to show them that they love themselves and want to present a clean picture of Soweto.

“When we talk about dignity, we also talk about our environment and today we decided we are going to do cleaning. It’s part of a task that has been given in the responsibilities of cities that take up construction of houses that they would keep clean cities, and we give them marks for that or we rank them either top or bottom.

“In time we are hoping that people would be sensitized against littering and we would make sure that the cities put up dustbins wherever necessary, and we need to ensure that there are concrete dustbins. The second step would be making littering illegal, but right now we have lot of problems and policing littering would be difficult,” Minister Sisulu said.

She said that the clean-up campaign will continue for a week, where dilapidated buildings in Soweto, especially schools would be cleaned and painted.

“We’ve chosen Soweto because most leaders spent a lot of time in Soweto planning and thinking through how we should get to where we are now.  We feel very honoured that we are in this space, which Madiba used to occupy before he went to Robben Island. It should at all times represent the man himself,” said Minister Sisulu.

Later in the day, the Minister is expected to engage with residents, who live in an informal settlement at Mzimhlophe, in Orlando West. During the engagement, the Minister and residents are expected to discuss the options of moving residents into proper houses. – SAnews.gov.za