All residents should work to clean up suburb

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IN response to the letter, "Councillor must shape up fast" (February 4), Samuel Davids must get his facts in order before making press statements about issues in Helenvale. He should rather ask himself what does he contribute to eradicating the refuse problem he refers to.

We, as residents in Helenvale, must admit that the community are largely to be blamed for the condition of our suburb, and shifting the blame to the councillor and the municipality does not erase the problem. It is rather a matter about what we as citizens are doing to assist in our quest for better living conditions in our area.

I, as a citizen residing in Helenvale who deeply loves and cares for our lovely people in this suburb, would fail in my duty by not explaining why I largely blame myself and fellow residents of Helenvale.

We must revive the basic principles taught to us by our elders and teachers, and respect each other by being dignified in our daily actions. Only then will we be able to refrain from discarding our refuse randomly without respecting the moral principles of our fellow citizens.

I do admit there are various problems within the service delivery spectrum we can blame, but that does not give us the right to abuse the dignity of others by dumping our refuse randomly, completely disregarding health and safety. Currently there are a number of major infrastructure projects in progress in Helenvale that were identified and proposed by residents represented within the HURP programme and are nearing the completion stage.

At the planning stage of these projects Davids chose not to participate, therefore I cannot understand who he wishes to give accolades to for projects he does not know how and when were implemented. I sincerely advise our community leaders not to be hasty to blame, because our comments and decisions should be motivational and beneficial to the community.

Does Davids imply that the community of Helenvale must live in these unhealthy and hazardous conditions by saying that the councillor must not attempt to do anything about the situation?

The councillor is right in imposing the constitution of the country for a clean and healthy environment. Today all the residents agree that we have the best councillor by far.