ABERDEEN NEWS — Many Aberdeen residents have been delighted to see a new supply of litter bins in the town, which are proving to be a real attraction.
The new bins have been loving hand-painted by local resident Cornelia Killian, as part of an initiative of the Aberdeen Charity Bike Run.
At the inaugural Bike Run last year, there was much discussion amongst participants about the regular problem of litter in the town, and the poor state of the bins currently situated in the town. The plastic bins that had been donated through Caltex a few years previously had worked well initially, but over time had become brittle and badly damaged.
It proved very difficult to track down metal drums, but eventually, a consignment of eight arrived from businessman Roelof van der Merwe from Gauteng, and Biker Zackie Loots collected ten empty drums from customers in the Western Cape and brought them to Aberdeen.
The empty drums first had to be cleaned thoroughly and prepared for painting. Jurgens Strydom helped by providing one of his workers to assist with this.
Killian has been coming to Aberdeen for extended holidays since 2008, and is, in her own words, “totally in love with the town”, and moved here permanently towards the end of last year. She is keen to help build up the town in as many ways as possible and has many ideas and projects in mind to work towards this.
The bins have been painted with scenes of Aberdeen heritage, including the well-known Dutch Reformed Church, Pagel House and a donkey cart. Images have been shared on an Aberdeen facebook group, and there has been a great support and much praise for the new bins, which look very professional. They have been mostly installed to replace the broken bins using existing fittings.
Following correct protocol, Cllr Rudy Jacobs had sent an e-mail to the municipal manager and to Chantal Jaftha-Ngqoza, Manager of Community Services in the Dr Beyers Naudé Municipality, to ask for permission to install the bins.
When Ngqosa returned from leave on Monday, she promptly responded, thanking the members of the community for assisting in keeping the town clean. However great consternation was initially caused by Ngqoza’s reminder that the bins should be painted green! Due to a misunderstanding, it was first thought that the beautiful artwork on the bins would not be allowed and those bins would need to be removed.
However, after some intervention by Cllr Jacobs, the situation was resolved and once Ngqoza had seen photographs of the bins, she was happy to allow Killian to continue with the project. At this stage, there will be 20 bins available, but as long as the empty drums keep coming, Killian is happy to paint more! She is hoping to get local schools involved in the project, to help position and maintain bins in the townships.
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