Ms Elthea Schlesinger from Louis Trichardt, writes:

Dear Jaco Voight and managing members of the Chamber

Thank you, Jaco Voigt, and the managing members of the Soutpansberg Chamber of Commerce and Tourism for working on getting various stakeholders in Vhembe to talk and listen to each other. Thank you also for distributing important information for business opportunities as wide as you can for slashing the grounds around the Makhado Information Centre – it looks so much better.

I hope our Vhembe communities can in time also address the terrible littering in our water and along our main roads and towns. We get a lot of tourist feedback that our region (and water!) is polluted and that visitors would prefer to holiday at places where the environment is clean. I am convinced that pollution and littering are also a deciding factor for the funders and cyclists coming for the Kremetart cycling each year. These are not good signs if tourism and agriculture are our province’s number 1 and 2 income generators.

In this regard, we can take our lead from Ms Pfarelo Ramugondo of Ngwenani ya Ha-Mapholi who started a project to clean local rivers and streams after they were turned into dumping areas. I am in total awe of her. You can read her story in Limpopo Mirror of 12 May 2017, page 3.  (In short, she started with 100 volunteers – non-paid, they only later received support from the Department of Water and Sanitation, who trained them in waste management and firefighting and Vhembe District Municipality helped them by collecting the garbage they collected from the river).

It would be wonderful if Ms Ramugondo’s Tshikofokofo's effort could go viral!