As the year 2022 comes to a close, it is time that the residents and ratepayers of Ward 61 reflect on the various challenges faced in the area during the year, including crime and grime and the numerous water and electricity cuts. We also need to take stock of ourselves and ask how each one of us can assist in making the Laudium/Erasmia area a better place for all it’s law abiding citizens, in the year 2023 and beyond.
The past year has certainly proved to residents, that slowly but surely, government is failing its people. Poverty is on the increase as more and more people are unemployed and the gap between rich and poor widens.
Thus, we need to, as a community, unite and work together, if we want to live in a safer and cleaner environment. Of course there are limits to what we as a community can do, firstly because of limited resources and secondly because we have to, at all times, abide by the laws of the country, unlike the many criminals who are freely walking the streets of Laudium.
Whilst we have to be realistic and realise that we cannot solve all the challenges we are facing as a community, the Laudium Sun appeals to the community, through the various non-profit organisations, to identify two or three ‘projects’ for the year 2023, that are achievable and then make it a goal to accomplish. A quick thought would be for the various welfare organisations in the area to create feeding schemes outside the boundaries of Ward 61, so as to stop the influx of vagrants and nyaopes coming in great numbers into the area. Residents should be encouraged to rather give their food parcels or monies meant for charity, to these local organisations. Also, there has to be campaign where ‘the whistle is blown’ on those dumping rubbish illegally in the area. These dumpsters should be publically exposed (even in the Laudium Sun). At the same time, the Council should be approached to provide a suitable dumping site within Ward 61.
The community should also unite in applying for the Laudium CBD or even beyond, to be converted into a CID (City Improvement District) area and also explore the advantages of making the entire area, a gated community, so that all accesses to and from the area would be controlled and monitored.
Through the office of the Ward Councillor, it is hoped that a meeting will be called in the early part of 2023, inviting all role players in the area to make practical proposals regarding challenges that can be tackled in the short term, so that, ‘Together, we can make Ward 61 a better place for all it’s law abiding residents.’ -Editor