South Africans Volunteer To Clean Cities After A Week Of Riots

Construction companies, builders, transport and even psychologists are volunteering their services for free under the banner RebuildSA, as some parts of the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces prepare for mopping up operations.

Communities were now mobilising to offer their time and services to help remove the debris in the shopping centres and malls affected by the looting spree over the last few days.

Talks were also underway to get corporates on board and to set up a fund where South Africans could contribute financially to help businesses get back on their feet.

RebuildSA is a Facebook page created for communities to take back their power and start cleaning up the looted malls, shopping centres and businesses.

More than 24,000 people have joined this group, some from overseas, offering to help financially to help rebuild South Africa after messages of “pray for SA” reached other countries.

Many were offering construction services for free, others were offering food and some even free counselling to those who were simply feeling overwhelmed.

Dineo Khotle-Moalosi was part of a Help Rebuild Soweto group, where volunteers were planning to mop up malls in Dobsonville, Maponya and Diepkloof that were affected by the violence and looting.

“We asked people to come with whatever they have to clean up the malls – brooms, detergents and other cleaning material. The waste can be managed by Pikitup,” Khotle-Moalosi said.

While many people have offered to clean up the infrastructure, it’s inevitable that some businesses will not be able to reopen their doors, putting people’s jobs at risk.