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The front of the Cathedral of St Mary the Virgin in Johannesburg.
PHOTO: Malaika Ditabo/News24
- Johannesburg MMC Jack Sekwaila attributed the filthy state of the city to homeless people, saying that they raided bins and destroyed infrastructure.
- Bishop Stephen Moreo took to social media to criticise the government for the rubbish around the cathedral.
- Sekwaila said introducing compulsory rehabilitation centres for homeless people was crucial.
The City authority tasked with ensuring that Johannesburg is clean has blamed homeless people for the filthy streets in the city and for stealing infrastructure.
MMC for environmental and infrastructure services Jack Sekwaila said homeless people raided bins to find cans, bottles, and other materials they could sell, exacerbating the dirt problem in the city.
"Another issue is homeless people, not only in terms of contributing to the dirtiness of the city, but the stealing of infrastructure of the City of Johannesburg," he told News24.
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He said he did not want to shoulder the blame for the dirty inner-city, but added that while the City was delivering services, homeless people and others were ruining infrastructure.
Sekwaila believes that rehabilitating homeless people through a programme Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi announced, was a crucial factor in cleaning the inner city.
"They are messing us up. You can tell. You can walk around the city and see the robots. Most of them are down. They are taking cables to scrapyards. We need to address it," he added.
Anglican Archdiocese Bishop Stephen Moreo condemned recently elected Mayor Thapelo Amad and the government for the dire state of the area outside the Cathedral of St Mary the Virgin in the CBD.
In a viral video posted on Sunday, Moreo could be heard saying:
I have never seen something like this and especially in a world-class city! Hosanna! Mr mayor and your local government, I don't think in your chambers you have something like this! Hosanna! Mr mayor and previous mayors, you have come to this cathedral for prayer, yet today we have something like this. Hosanna! Save our Cathedral! Save our Cathedral!
"Mr mayor, let me tell you this. God cannot do anything about this. You, through the people of this city, have been granted the authority by God to make sure that things like this do not happen and especially next to a worshipping place where every Sunday we pray for you in this cathedral. Hosanna!"
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Church administrator Malebogeng Kagiso told News24 that the video was taken on Palm Sunday after the crowd requested a procession outside the cathedral.
Sekwaila told News24 that the video of the bishop came as a surprise.
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The MMC dispatched a team hours after the video was released, and the area was cleaned.
Sekwaila told News24 that a meeting with Moreo and the mayor would take place so that they would see each other as partners and that he would not raise his concerns through the media.
A date is yet to be confirmed.
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