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03 July 2019 | Story Leonie Bolleurs
KovsiesCare - Clean Up Read More
Tsietsi Ngobese, through the Wesolve4x Cleaning My Planet Campaign, motivated citizens to collectively fill over 23 000 refuse bags to date.

The mission: To collectively fill 20 million refuse bags every Saturday with the help of 20 million people who are cleaning their own communities and our planet for an hour. The message: My planet, my responsibility.

The mission and message that the Wesolve4x Cleaning My Planet Campaign wants to convey, is based on a simple premise: Get community members to donate one hour of their time to cleaning duties every Saturday for the next 20 years until 2039. At the same time provide a continuous educational programme about waste management to the general public and to schools in order to empower them to take responsibility.

Address trash blindness


Tsietsi Ngobese, Chief Executive Officer of this initiative and BSc Actuarial Science graduate, says he understands the transformative power of education and the role it plays in transforming diverse communities. Through outreach programmes in our community and schools, we are slowly eliminating generational trash blindness. We also tackle some of the social determinants of health by encouraging healthy living conditions within our communities through good waste management and recycling. 

It is important for Tsietsi to add value to society. He believes that the Wesolve4x Generation will transform the world for the better through education and empowering all citizens.

The campaign – officially endorsed by Miss Earth South Africa, Catherine Constantinides – was launched on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus as well as the Abram Hlope Primary School in Katlehong on 4 May 2019.

“We want to promote the benefits of a clean and healthy environment for future generations,” said Tsietsi. 

Since their inception, the group has collectively filled over 23 000 refuse bags with the help of active citizens. 

Challenge accepted

When former lecturer, Jan Blomerus, once challenged his Actuarial students to protect the environment in order to decrease the mortality rate (from natural disasters because of the effect of climate change), Tsietsi accepted the challenge. “By inspiring excellence and transforming lives, the UFS plays an important role; I started to believe that I can address societal challenges in the communities I am an integral part of,” he said.

When Tsietsi saw trash piling up everywhere and children playing at illegal dumping sites, he became concerned about the health risk to society. He believes the dumping area is contaminating the air and water around the dumping site. 

“I had to be part of the solution to start cleaning up, and most importantly, educating myself and others to continuously take responsibility for our own waste and change our thinking about littering. This is a generational issue and needs a generational approach to unlearn all habits of littering,” Tsietsi pointed out. 

As part of his vision, Tsietsi plans to reduce the waste taken to landfill sites and to increase that which is taken directly from households to recycling plants. He also wants to encourage people to find creative ways of converting what has previously been wasted into something useful. “This action can encourage individuals to generate an income from waste,” he said.

Take action

Tsietsi invites all members of the Mangaung community to get involved in the project. This is your opportunity to make a difference on Mandela Day. You can;
provide sponsorship for educational content on effective waste management, economic opportunities, and health issues to the general public and to schools;
provide refuse bags, plastic gloves or hand-washing soap (used by community members in every clean-up session);
join in a collective effort to clean your community by meeting at designated schools or any designated community assembly point on a Saturday (contact 011 307 2005 or info@wesolve4x.com for more information).


News Archive

Pres Steyn turns pink in anticipation of Vryfees
2014-06-06

Video clip
Live streaming
 

Australian artist Cigdem Aydemir vacuum packed the Pres Steyn monument on the Bloemfontein Campus’s Red Plain – in pink. Aydemir’s project, ‘Plastic Histories’, forms part of a public art project that encourages us to evaluate public monuments in their historical context. 

By vacuum packing monuments, Aydemir alludes to their significance and preservation. At the same time, though, it reveals the nature of their contentious and gendered historical function. This is because most monuments in post-colonial countries typically celebrate men’s achievements in serving their nations.

In response, this project acknowledges the contribution of women from all races, communities and sexual orientations to the grand narrative of a post-apartheid South Africa.

Aydemir is also developing an app in collaboration with Australian artist Warren Armstrong. This will be used for augmented reality viewing of three city monuments – those of President Brand, General De Wet and General Hertzog. This means that visitors will be able to hold a smart phone or iPad in front of the monuments and view the monuments as if vacuum packed in pink plastic.

In conjunction with the public art project there will be an exhibition of digitally manipulated photographs of nineteen-century and contemporary male monuments in Bloemfontein. These photos will be exhibited at the Johannes Stegmann Gallery at the UFS Sasol Library from 15 July – 1 August 2014.

Public tours on the Bloemfontein Campus and into the city will take place on:

• Tuesday 15 July at 11:00,
• Wednesday 16 July at 14:00, and
• Saturday 19 July at 11:00.

Aydemir’s ‘Plastic Histories’ public art project is part of the UFS Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD) and the Vryfees arts festival’s partnership with the Australian-based SituateArt in Festivals initiative. This partnership is managed by the Salamanca Arts Centre in Tasmania. 

Read more articles about this project:

POZIBLE launch (pdf document)
Media release: 17 June 2014: Art Stars Revealed (pdf document)
PIAD/PIKO - http://bit.ly/1gazQTV
OPENLab - http://bit.ly/1hzguUG
CAD Forum - http://bit.ly/1sNvtRB


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