An innovative street project in Doorn, Welkom, has now expanded to encompass four streets in the neighbourhood.
What initially started as the Reitz Street Neighbourhood Watch now also includes the streets Hope, Nyala, and Loop, as well as the small street next to Welkom Volkskool.
The convenors of this unique project are Tania Lategan and Petrie Pienaar, and what was initiated for safety has now expanded to include the cleaning of streets, pavements, pothole repair, painting manholes, and manhole covers.
“We started about three years ago with the two parks that were posing a threat to the surrounding houses.
“The trolley people and other criminal elements would use the overgrown parks to sort out their loot, and then leave the discarded items as litter in the parks.
“We cleaned up the parks, and then we fenced them off, with permission of the municipality. This created clean and secure areas,” says Lategan.
Every Saturday, three men are employed to cut paving overgrowth, fill potholes, paint manholes and manhole covers, and generally keep the area spick and span.
To this end, the residents donate R100 a month to cover the salaries of the weekly workers, painting, and anything else that is needed.
“We were soon approached by the residents of the adjacent Hope, Nyala, and Loop streets to become part of the project,” says Lategan.
They have painted the kerb stones and named the streets. Residents also buy Neighbourhood Watch signs for the gates.
“We have managed to install 12 cameras that are monitored. We have replaced the stolen manhole covers with concrete ones, and as a colourful quirk in the winter months, we started to wrap material around the trees in the streets to make them look special and brighten up the area. We change the material every six to eight weeks. We are very proud of our streets and our project.”
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