WATCH | Ellis Park area gets major cleanup ahead of Boks match

The Ellis Park Stadium precinct has undergone a major sprucing up with streetlights being fixed and fitted with new bulbs while waste collectors had been visiting the area at least three times a week.

The normally filthy bridges and dingy dark corners have been given a new spark ahead of the the Boks vs All Blacks clash tomorrow and residents who live nearby are asking for more such events to ensure better service delivery. 

Bhekani Madela, a petrol attendant in the area, said his evening walks from the MTN taxi rank to Joe Slovo to do his nightshift have been less stressful in the past three weeks.

“They [the city] have only gotten serious about their cleaning now that there is a rugby match happening at the weekend. Even crime levels have lessened because the streetlights are now working," said Madela.

Sowetan drove around the streets near the precinct and saw a few bags of rubbish which had been packed away along the sidewalks. The litter was allegedly caused by homeless people but municipal waste collectors had rounded it up and put it in bags for collection the next day. 

“They have fixed the streetlights and now the level of crime has reduced. I mean we are able to walk in the evening and actually see where we are going. Pikitup does come to our street to clean and we have never had a problem of living in a dirty place,” Regina Malatji of Bertrams told Sowetan.

Charity Mogotlane, who lives a few blocks away from the stadium, said until three weeks ago the residents would organise themselves, collect money and buy utensils to clean up their street because waste collectors were not coming to their area.

“We have never seen the Pikitup workers in our street; It's only those workers who cut grass we always see. It's great to see waste collectors now coming and we want to see more games so that we can get services,” said Mogotlane.

Joburg mayor Dada Morero held a press conference this week and said that the Boks game had given it an opportunity to partner with the private sector to demonstrate that the partnership between the private sector and provincial government will help reclaim the city.

“The city took an active part in ensuring that this event becomes successful and there were immediate things that we had to do in preparing the entire precinct and we have also taken some serious decisions to revitalise the Ellis Park precinct and Standard Bank Arena.  

“We also see this game as an opportunity for us to also revitalise the entire precinct and bring it back to its former glory. Taking this game as an opportunity to implement our projects on the rejuvenation of the inner city,” said Morero.

He said the city managed to fix exposed wires, faulty streetlight poles and abandoned transformers and substations in the Bertrams area.

Morero said vandalism was the major driver of faulty streetlights 

"Since the last few months we have been trying to address issues of streetlights and traffic lights. But the challenge also is the fact that there's a huge level of vandalism of the infrastructure. We are trying to find solutions to put up infrastructure that cannot be easily vandalised," said Morero.

Director of mayoral communications, Mlimandlela Ndamase, had also taken to X to share picture of spotless inner Joburg streets and bridges, saying the good service delivery should not be centred around big events and should be normalised. 

However, Ellis Park ward councillor Masindi Mmbengwa said the heightened service delivery in the area  was just coincidence and has nothing to do with the rugby match.

“What the JRA, City Power and Joburg Water is doing was major maintenance and the match is just a coincidence. The city did not have the budget and that’s why we had to borrow money, implement the plan they already had to rejuvenate the inner city.  

“The rugby test is just a coincidence. We had a challenge in the previous year. We were going to clean the area. The agreement was getting everybody to visit the streets one by one and fix the broken lights, clean the area and fix the water pipes,” said Mmbengwa.

Founder of Local Abode and partner of Jozi my Jozi initiative, Stephen du Preez, said the idea to save the Ellis Park precinct started last year when a lot of property owners in area realised that something needed to be done.

"We can all complain about service delivery or we could be part of the change ... and that's when the idea of Jozi my Jozi came up." 

According to Du Preez, Jozi my Jozi is a movement aimed at igniting hope and instilling pride in Joburg.

About 62,000 people are expected to visit the stadium.

"Emirates Airlines Park together with our stakeholders, SAPS, Fidelity and other partners have worked to ensure that the safety of spectators is of utmost importance. As with any major international event, the deployment of security personnel is key," said Nyaniso Sam, media and communications for Ellis Park stadium.

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