Our first Sugarbush Ridge Coalition meeting took place this afternoon. It was a rush to get from Sandton to the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens but I made it although slightly late at least I beat Andrew who lives on the property as he arrived after me. From left to right are Tony, Belinda, Dawid, Gerald, Johann, and Andreas.
The Rooderkrans Neighbourhood Watch held their annual Christmas Carols Evening at the Kruinpark Retirement Village. The RNW had a wors braai at the old age home to feed the hunger while Andreas and his band entertained.
Okay I did not take this photo but I am there in the crowd doing my power stance during the briefing of the Joint Visibility Operation in Mogale City this evening. There just off centre to the left wearing a blue shirt with an open luminous reflector jacket.
Lynda and I joined the few from Roodekrans Neighbourhood Watch to represent the RNW at the Joint Visibility Operation along with Mogale CPF Sectors 3, 4 and 5; Muldersdrift Sector 3; Randburg CPF; Security companies APCAN and EPR; Intellidrive; Netcare 911; Mogale City Community Safety, Disaster Management and the West Rand Fire Department along with the South African Police services. Yip there was a large number of groups represented, although I wonder what happened to Sector 7, Sector 8 and the other Security companies.
What a rush today has been. The boss man is flying out tomorrow and I had to get the rest of the week's workload to bedded down. This morning I remembered that I had to be at Tony's Memorial Tree Planting but due to my head spinning with all the work, I arrived home, totally oblivious that I had to be elsewhere. Halfway through cooking supper, I got the message reminding us that we planting a tree in the next half an hour. Oh (&@9. Drop everything...
Tony was a long time Neighbourhood Watch Patroller, who pasted away a few days ago, and we decided that planting a Wild Olive tree in the park just down the road where he lived would be a good way of remembering him. So that is what we did.
A week back the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens informed us that raw sewerage was flowing over the waterfall into the gardens below. Andreas went to inspect a previous problem area and sure enough there was a sewerage leak. The relevant officials were informed at the City of Johannesburg and they promised that it would be seen too.
But bad news kept coming in from the Botanical Gardens, the sewerage is continuing to flow into the gardens. To date the Department of Sanitation has NOT being able to reach the source of the sewerage leak due to the area being overgrown with brambles. This means sewerage has being flowing into Botanical Gardens now for over a week. This morning Andreas noticed sewerage further upstream from this leak so after phoning me, we planned a hike into the gorge this afternoon to search for the source of this spillage.
I can't get the horror of what we found out of my mind, a waterfall of pure $#!T was overflowing from a manhole and into the stream that runs through the gorge and down into the Botanical Gardens. How long has this waterfall of raw sewerage being flowing? On the video you can hear the water of sewerage which once you realise that it is not a lovely waterfall but pure filth, you just want to throw up. After an urgent message on our Conservation WhatsApp group with an location pin, Mogale City sprang into action and was there within the hour to unblock the sewer.
Wow I am very impressed with Mogale City as it was late Sunday afternoon yet they were ready to get their hands dirty and stop this waterfall of $#!T. The sad news is that it was discovered that someone had removed the manhole cover and filled the sewer with rocks. ROCKS? So someone deliberately blocked the sewer line and cause unimaginable damage to the environment. They must have rocks in their heads. Later on I was informed that blocking a sewer line in this manner was a common practice used to mine the waste for valuables that were flushed down the drain.
This area is vulnerable and needs to be protected at all costs.
The Year End functions are rolling in fast and furious with three down, another tomorrow. This afternoon's function was the Fun Seekers' Lamb on a Spit Meetup. And it was another great afternoon spent having good food and drinks with friends. Today's photograph is of Andreas. Interesting, one of the kids at the spit thought Andreas had a remarkable likeness to Father Time. Thank goodness he didn't say Father Christmas as that would sure scare the kids. Although Father Andreas was jolly enough to hand out the presents. Even I got one.
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