The community of Coligny are making changes in their town to better it for everyone. Everyone is working to improve the public areas and roads.
We are seeing it more and more, communities are tired of waiting or tired of fighting and protesting for better service delivery, so they take matters into their own hands. We saw this when an informal settlement crowdfunded to purchase 30 toilets and more recently the community of Coligny have started doing their own work on the town.
Coligny is a maize farming town situated next to the railway line between Lichtenburg and Johannesburg in North West Province of South Africa.
Coligny residents formed a forum and they involved the whole community. The goal, to make their small town nicer and cleaner for all who live there or pass through.
So far they have worked on a number of projects which have been funded by community members, businesses and local farmers. Working with “South Africa Day” organisers, they have set up a programme that includes painting street lines, clearing public spaces, building new fences and even filling potholes.
South Africa Day is a new concept, modelled on that of Australia Day. South Africa Day is a day to celebrate the country, its people, its achievements and its possibilities. South Africa Day will also focus on supporting initiatives that will instil pride and the reason to believe in South Africa, and those that will promote pride and national unity.
The official day will be celebrated annually on Saturday of the last week of November. It is the day after Black Friday. Coligny was selected as a pilot project for the day. The town has had some rough times. It was in the news for race-related offences. The hope is that by creating a common goal, unity among the community members can be established.
Coligny, like many other towns in South Africa, has its own infrastructure problems such as those that have to do with water, sewerage, electricity and roads. Other things such as streets maintenance, repairing of potholes, cleaning, cutting of grass, planting of trees and general maintenance are also lacking.
All these issues are being addressed by the community.
“The project so far has inspired so many people from all over SA already that some businesses outside the town offered their help and support. We would like to see that all rural towns in SA start their own project to achieve the same goal.” – Mr. Barend La Grange, SA Day Chief Operations Officer
The project is about the general beautification of the whole town and this will involve the following:
- Repairing of potholes
- Painting of roads and markers
- Getting the business people to paint their shops
- Getting business owners to cut the grass that is in front of their businesses.
- Beautification of all the town’s entrances (e.g., creation of rock and flower gardens, planting of trees and grass)
- Renovation of three classrooms at a school
- Clean-up of school grounds
- Planting of trees in town
- Rubbish removal
- Beautification of premises that are used by SASSA
- Getting the residents to clean the front of their houses
The project will not involve any major capital investment projects such as roads, sewerage, electricity, and water supply. Those things need to be addressed and funded by government.
Below are some pictures of the community working together to beautify their town.
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