Archived news

The management team of the Sasolburg Community Action Group is excited to announce the launch of the new website for the group. Not only is the website new, but a new service provider has also been appointed to host the website.

These changes are as a result of the increasing number of users of the site, the feedback that we received from the users as well as requirements received from the Metsimaholo Local Municipality with regards to the information that the group provide to the municipality.

We believe that the new site will provide users with a more user-friendly experience whilst allowing us to strengthen the relationship between the group and the municipality.

On Monday, 27 November 2017, at approximately 10:00 we became aware of a problem with the web server responsible for servicing our www.sasolburgactiongroup.co.za website.  A post was placed on our Facebook group notifying the public of the upgrade to the server hardware that was to commence at 13:00 the same day.

During the upgrade procedure we suffered unforeseen problems with the database backups which resulted in a longer than expected downtime on the server.  We have done everything in our power to resolve the problems with the database backups, but we were unfortunately unsuccessful in our attempts to restore the data to the backup that was made at 13:00 on 27 November 2017.

As a result of this data corruption, we were only able to retrieve data up until 06 May 2017 at this point in time.  We will, however, continue with further attempts to retrieve more data.

Due to the loss of data, we kindly request users that have registered after 06 May 2017 to please register again.  In addition to this, we also request all outstanding faults to be reported to us again in order for the list to be updated and for the faults to receive the required attention.

We sincerely and unconditionally apologise for the inconvenience caused by this unforeseen situation.  All necessary steps to prevent such an occurrence to happen again in the future has been taken.  We are also investigating the possibility of moving to cloud hosting, but the costs are prohibitively expensive at this point in time.

The Sasolburg Gemeenskap Aksie Groep (SGAG) have a new sponsor on board.  Mr. Kobus de Villiers and his wife, Sylvia, who are the owners of the Fonteine and Sasol One RCC garages in Sasolburg, have been monitoring the activities of the SGAG and decided to get involved by sponsoring fuel for certain projects.

“We looked at various groups and their input in the area and decided to support the Sasolburg Gemeenskap Aksie Groep because of the impact that they’ve already made in the area.”, said Mr. De Villiers.

“It is an honour and privilege to take hands with companies that share our vision for the area and who support the changes that what we, together with the municipality, community and other businesses like this, can and will make in the area.”, said Mr. Wimpie Fourie of the SGAG.

Mr. Sydney Lempe, Director of Social Services at the Metsimaholo local municipality, attended the handing over of the garage card.  “It is important for us to show our support and appreciation for those that are willing to assist the municipality in uplifting our community”, said Mr. Lempe.

In the photo, from left to right:  
Mr. Kobus de Villies, Mrs. Sylvia de Villiers, Director Sydney Lempe and Mr. Wimpie Fourie

The storm that passed over the area in the early hours of the evening of Friday, 11 November 2016, caused several trees to be uprooted and tree branches to be broken. 

“Firstly we want to thank our Heavenly Father for the rain.  Although it was accompanied with strong winds we are grateful that no one was injured”, said Jan Coetzee of the Sasolburg Gemeenskap Aksie Groep.

“A special word of thanks to Piet and his team that assisted with the cutting of the trees during the past 24 hours.  Also a word of thanks to the residents that waited patiently for the removal of trees.” Jan continued.

It is estimated that more than 60 trees and big branches that where laying in various streets in Sasolburg, Vaalpark and Deneysville were removed in the 24 hour period.  As the municipal equipment was stolen earlier this year, all the chainsaws used during the clean-up process is privately owned.

A few residents in these areas also took it upon themselves to clear roads in their areas and the management of the group wish to thank each and every one of those residents for assisting in this matter.

The municipality will be removing the trees and branches from sidewalks in the days to come.  Residents are requested to be patient with this process as there is a very limited number of resources available to address this issue.  

Due to the falling water level at the Vaal Dam, water restrictions will be implemented throughout the Metsimaholo area.

Kragbron and surrounding areas have been without water as the water level of the Vaal Dam keeps plummeting.  The plight of the residents, in particular those of the school children, where brought to our attention by Mr. Koos Louw, Headmaster at Taaibos Primary School, on 11 October with his Facebook post.

"I had to close the school due to health issues as bathrooms cannot be cleaned and we cannot cook food for the almost 600 children eating at School daily. (For some their only meal for the day)", said Louw.

Members of the Sasolburg Gemeenskap Aksie Groep (SGAG) took action and during the afternoon of 13 October we delivered four 5,000l water tanks to the area, two of which were delivered to the school whilst the other two was delivered to the staff flats, the first of which was immediately filled with water by the Metsimaholo Local Municipality.  These containers will be used to supply the school children and the local community with drinking water.

We wish to thank the Rejuvenation Trust for making the funds available which allowed us to purchase these four containers.  A special word of thanks also to Mr. Lempe, Mr. Mabe and the employees of Metsimaholo municipality for their assistance with the distribution of water to the affected areas.

  

As part of the Sasolburg CBD clean-up and restore, we’ve managed to fit new doors to the electrical distribution centres.

These doors will prevent vandals from entering these distribution centres and protect the electrical components that will allow us to switch even more lights on in the CBD area.  

We would like to thank Hannes Hayward and his son, Wouter, for their assistance with the manufacturing and installation of these doors.  

The residents of Hogge Street are the first to receive the new street name boards in the area.

Although this may seem to be a luxury by many, these name boards are crucial in assisting emergency services to respond in a timely fashion when the need arises.  There have been several incidents where the emergency services did not respond in time due to them getting lost on their way as they could not find the address.

The costs of these new boards are R300 per board where the pole is still available.  The costs of replacing a damaged or missing pole is R200.

As mentioned in September we were planning on fixing potholes in Sasolburg and Vaalpark in partnership with the Sasol Ikusasa community project. This project started a bit later than we all hoped for, but we fixed the first pothole on 26 October in Vaalpark.

Since then the team has fixed approximately 900m2, or 3600, potholes in Vaalpark and Sasolburg. We had to withdraw from Vaalpark due to overlapping with the contractor that was appointed by the municipality to fix the streets there until such time that we have confirmation as to which street has been assigned to the contractor for repairs.

The high traffic streets have been receiving the highest priority in order to alleviate the frustration of as many residents as possible instead of just the residents residing in a specific street. These streets include those that lead to schools, hospitals, old age homes and so forth. This does not mean that we do not want to fix the streets that only service the residents residing in that street, only that they are less of a priority to us.

The team currently operate from Monday to Thursday with Friday being used to prepare for the work to be done the following week. The team is also currently on leave until the 4th of January when they will continue with the project.

We have limited funds for this project and this is one of the reasons why a decision was made to allow the residents the opportunity to hire the team over weekends to fix potholes in their street. The cost involved will be used to cover the labour costs of the team whilst the material used during the repairs will be funded through the Ikusasa project. By contributing towards the labour costs in this way we can ensure that we will be able to fix more potholes with the money that we have available for the project. This will also ensure that lower priority streets will be fixed sooner as the community is contributing towards this.

We ask that any resident wishing to make use of this service please report it on our website under the fault “Streets - Pothole - SCAG to repair”. We will then get in contact with the resident that filed the report in order to discuss the situation and make the required arrangements for the work to be done.

The team

A team member repairing a pothole

The article from Sasolburg Ster of 15 December 2015

Tonight we started with the installation of the Christmas lights at the fountain circle as well as in Eric Louw. We’ve managed to install 13 of the structures thus far and aim to complete this project tomorrow night.

The feedback that we received from community members driving past were overwhelmingly positive. Hooters where blown, people waved and said thank you. The kids pointed at the lights with awe on their little faces.

We wish to sincerely thank each and every one that contributed towards this project. We would also like to convey all of the “thank you” we received from the public as you made this possible. Your contributions have had a positive impact on the community and you can proudly say that you are part of this project.

Unfortunately photos are not able to convey the experience and we therefore invite each and every one to visit the area and experience some of the spirit of Christmas for yourself.

Preparing for the task at hand.

The first light being installed.

And so another action weekend comes to an end and we would once again like to sincerely thank each and every one for their contribution. Everyone that was involved can say with pride that they made a real difference.

We have to make special mention of the contribution that the municipality made during the weekend. Without their support we would still be stuck at the substation behind Felix Stowe Street. This is the first time that the municipality were actively involved in one of our clean-up weekend and we believe that we will take hands again in the future to make a real difference.

We would also like to thank H Equipment Hire, Turnmill Proquip Engineering, Vaal Triangle Pannelbeaters and Stols Vervoer for supplying us with the equipment used during the weekend.

The attached map shows the area that we managed to clean during the weekend. Due to various reasons we were not able to clean the entire planned area, but we did manage to clean the major problem areas.

It is impossible for the attached photos to give a true reflection of the work that we did, but we believe that the residents of the area will be able to attest to the change.

We ask that the residents in that area now take ownership of this greenbelt and that they maintain it in its current state. The hard work has been done.

This weekend is further proof that this group does not consist of people that just wants to talk about the problems we’re facing, but rather people that do something about it. We truly hope to see have more involvement from the residents during our next action.

Together we can do so much more.

The area we managed to clean

Some before and after photos

On Tuesday, 6 October 2015, we started with our project to fix the streetlights in Sasolburg. This project has been one of our priorities and after several weeks of preparation and with the assistance of Jan (Snr) and Dekker Coetzee, we finally managed to get the trailer used to gain access to the lights, up and running.

We were able to repair 13 lights in Faickney, Sandrivier, Colenso and Jan Botes Streets during this action. We’ve since received numerous reports from residents with regards to lights being out in various other streets across Sasolburg and Vaalpark and we will attend to these during the course of the next couple of weeks.

As we are unable to fund this project out of our personal finances, we charge a nominal fee of R100 per light that we replace. This covers some of the costs involved in the project which includes the light, fuel and equipment. As most lights are shared by four homes, this brings the cost per household down to R25 if everybody contributes.

We as management committee would like to thank the following people for their contribution and support in the effort thus far. Without the support from community members and companies like these, this project would not have been possible.

Willem Cox of Vicotec, Jan Coetzee (Snr), Dekker Coetzee and Sarel Bakkes.

The team in action.

We aim to use the weekend of the 10th and 11th of October to clean the green belt around Noord School in Sasolburg.

As can be seen from the attached photo, the area is quite large and we therefore request the assistance of the community in making a success of this project.

Please visit our Facebook page at Sasolburg Gemeenskapsaksie Groep - Sasolburg Community Action Group and leave a comment on the related post if you are interested in getting involved in this action.