A RE SEBETSENG BACKGROUND
In 2015, the Executive Mayor, Cllr Herman Mashaba, visited Rwanda and was taken aback by how clean the country was. In particular, he was inspired by the cleanliness of the capital city, Kigali.
Upon investigation, he learned that this is not only a function of a dedicated clean-up crews, but the product of a nation-wide communal effort known as Umuganda. The word Umuganda translates as ‘coming together in common purpose to achieve an outcome’.
Based on his experience in Rwanda, the Executive Mayor decided to launch a similar initiative in Johannesburg aimed at cleaning up the city. As a result, A Re Sebetseng was officially launched on 14 August 2017.
A Re Sebetseng which loosely translates ‘Together, let make Johannesburg work towards a cleaner a city’ shares the values of Umuganda insofar as it aims to encourage communities to work together to build a cleaner city. A Re Sebetseng now takes place every third Saturday of the month.
The A Re Sebetseng monthly campaign has come a long way since the launch, as depicted in the graphs below:
