The civil rights organisation AfriForum’s Month of Self-reliance for 2017, which started on Paul Kruger’s birthday on 10 October, has just come to an end.
During this year’s campaign AfriForum community structures across the country practised what they preached through 63 self-do projects to contribute to cleaner, safer towns and cities. These actions aim to address gaps in municipal service delivery and organise communities into improving their environments themselves.
“Communities are realising that they aren’t at the mercy of an unfit government. We promote community self-reliance through self-do projects, and these send a powerful message of hope,” says Johann Weber, Regional Head of AfriForum’s Northern Provinces.
Weber says that, although some people may feel that AfriForum is simply doing Government’s work while government officials sit back and laugh, AfriForum is in fact busy privatising service delivery and that all projects are funded by the organisation’s members, whose donations are tax-deductible.
AfriForum’s Month of Self-reliance campaign has been an annual event since 2015 and focuses on the cleaning and maintenance of towns and cities. Some of the year’s actions include:
- The Hero’s Acre Cemetery in Pretoria was cleaned on 10 October.
- The AfriForum branch in Vryburg secured the historic Great Trek Monument by building a safety wall around it.
- The AfriForum branch in Ellisras cleaned-up the play park in Peerboom Street in cooperation with the community. Garbage was collected, jungle gyms and structures were painted and repaired, and irrigation and water supply to the park were repaired.
- AfriForum’s Potchefstroom branch repaired 106 potholes in total. The branch is well-known for its pothole project and has already repaired more than 2 000 potholes in the town this year.
- AfriForum’s Pretoria East branch cleared up the area around the Moreleta River in cooperation with the Garslink Community Policing Forum, police reservists, various security firms (among them Chubb, Bull Security, ADT, Accon Security and High Risk Security) and the community.
- AfriForum branches in Delareyville and Standerton made their towns safer by replacing lost and invisible stop signs.
Show your support for these actions by sending an SMS with “Selfdoen” to 45344 (R1).