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JOHANNESBURG — Johannesburg city mayor Herman Mashaba has said the cleanup campaign which they copied from Rwanda is bearing fruit with improvement in cleanliness of the city.

Mashaba said they started the cleanup campaign two years ago. People clean up the city on the 3rd Saturday of each month, which closely modeled after Rwanda’s Umuganda.

“It encourages each of our residents to volunteer their time in order to make their communities cleaner and better. I have been deeply moved by the spirit of our people, who without fail have answered this monthly call to help make our communities more liveable,” said Mashaba on Tuesday.

He said over 21,500 people have participated in this program and 28,000 bags of waste have been collected.

Mashaba said organizations like Coca-Cola, Anglo Ashanti, Adcock Ingram, Avis Fleet, Miss Earth South Africa, universities, faith based organizations, ratepayers associations and community organizations have volunteered their time and resources towards the initiative.

Mashaba said they would extend the program to schools to improve the learning environment for some of the poorest schools.

He said the initiative will “continue to unite people by a common cause of volunteerism and a spirit of community, shared between all people.”  South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa have praised Rwanda’s cleanliness and stated that he want his country to be like that.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has also praised Rwanda for its cleanliness. Rwandese President Paul Kagame introduced Umuganda which motivates citizens to work together to address social ills, cleanliness and promote trust and belonging. – Xinhua