The community is fed up with the lack of service delivery from the municipality and have now taken matters into their own hands, literally. The close-knit community has now banded together and formed a group to become proactive and clean up their own streets.
Armed with bin-bags, spades, wheelbarrows and brooms, the group set out on Saturday, 15 May on an operational clean-up. Community member Eldrich Ferris says that he takes pride in his community and cannot wait on the municipality to deliver. “As a community member I have joined forces with the Patriotic Alliance (PA). Part of our philosophy is to not wait for service delivery but rather to take matters into our own hands in the area in which you live. We are trying to do our best with the little resources that we have and today we have begun with the first official phase of our operation to clean up our community,” he said.Ferris further explained that he is disappointed at the current state of the community. “We believe that the place in which we live has been neglected for a very long time, however we cannot continue complaining. We have decided to take initiative so we need to now clean up ourselves. We have members who are out to help us and we hope for this to be a regular sight in Fairleigh. Throughout Ward 25, we are going to have clean-up events like this one. We need to make the place that we live in look presentable,” said Ferris.
When talking about the lack of service delivery Ferris says that there is no one person to blame for the lack of same. “I am not an accusatory type of person unless I have facts, so I am not sure what exactly is the reason for the lack of cleaning up in our area. I do not want to speculate and make anybody look bad, when there could be a legitimate reason that we are not aware of, so I am not going to point fingers at the municipality. It could also be the fault of the people. They are the ones who drove the councillor out not so long ago now he is nowhere to be found. We don’t even know if he is still a councillor as there has been no communication whatsoever,” explained Ferris, referring to the recent unrest regarding the volatile situation in neighbouring Siyahlala.
Cameron Murugan, another proactive resident, explained why cleaning up is so important to him. “I have been a Fairleigh resident for 37 years now. It is disappointing to know that our community is not recognised. It seems as if we are excluded from developments in the town, our children are jobless, our homes are in terrible condition so that is why we have taken the initiative to do things for ourselves and to bring unity and development to the people of Fairleigh,” he said.Another issue that seems to have residents disappointed is the lack of support for the youth. “There are no facilities for the youth as well. We need the government to assist us in giving them some sort of support and motivation. There is no growth, projects or developments here. It is sad Fairleigh has not been developed in the last 30 years,” said Murugan.
Residents along with their children spent the day cleaning up the streets, fixing drains and removing rubble in order to give Fairleigh a much-needed facelift. Acting Municipal Manager Vish Govender has praised their efforts. “As a municipality we congratulate the residents of Fairleigh for being proactive and hope that issues are raised with their ward councillor and respective structures. We cannot do this alone as we also need the assistance of the community,” said Govender.
