Oupa cleans community

A 70-year-old former courier driver is leading by example as he rolls up his sleeves and regularly cleans the streets of Elsies River.

Benjamin Browne retired from his job in December and has since started sprucing up his community, painting dull walls, planting flowers along streets and in parks, and even cleaning the drains.

Speaking to Weekend Argus, he says this is his way of giving back to his community.

Benjamin says he decided that instead of complaining about the filth, mostly caused by youngsters in his area, he’d rather show them how they can make a positive impact for the betterment of their community and themselves.

“These young people lack motivation and our communities need them to be proactive in order to change the situations we are faced with.

“I live in Connaught Estate and have always worried about the state of our community,” he says.

“It’s not easy because they hope to be paid when doing something.”

Benjamin uses his own equipment and gets help from his family to buy anything else.

“Like many would say, this isn’t my responsibility, we have a government that’s supposed to be servicing our communities,” he says.

“But who suffers while we wait? How long has our community been like this, for hoping officials would notice and come to our rescue? Let us just do our part and those people can meet us halfway. It is our lives that are affected, after all.”

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