Library garden upgrades done

Shahied Joseph|Published 3 months ago

From left to right: Riedoewaan Galant, the manager of Safe Street Collective, Catherine Moon the senior librarian, Ebrahim Hondy from City Parks department, ward 54 councillor Nicola Jowell, Sub-council 16 manager Girshwin Fouldien, Liz Knight, co-chair of the GPRRA, gardeners Thapelo Sanderson and James Johnson, Judith Thomas a patron and Wesley Cupido, also a gardener, beneath the Norfolk Island Pine tree.

After six months of labour, the Sea Point library garden area has been significantly improved, making it safer and more aesthetically pleasant.

“This garden, this area was in disarray. I chatted to the librarian and we agreed to make some changes and it’s done after a few months,” said Liz Knight, the co-chair of the The Green Point Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association.

Ms Knight leads a team of gardeners from the Expanded Public Works Programme and the Safe Street Collective, who have placed approximately 7 000 bricks in the garden area.

“We worked with gardeners from the EPWP, the Safe Street Collective who are managed by the ratepayers. These gentlemen have become really astute gardeners and we are thankful that Girshwin Fouldien from Sub-Council assisted us on this project. We also received bags of cement from community members and propagated plants from our gardens to plant here,” said Ms Knight.

She adds that the gardeners will continue to work on the library garden at least once a week to keep it in good condition.

Catherine Moon, the senior librarian, was full of praise for Ms Knight and the Safe Street Collective gardeners.

“They have made a wonderful difference to this garden and they made it safer for the toddlers who come here with their caregivers for a pram jam. This area had so many devils thorns and stinging nettles and after this wonderful work they won’t have to worry about that,” said Ms Moon.

Nicola Jowell, Ward 54 councillor, said it was amazing to see how different City departments worked together to achieve the improvements at the library.

“It’s great to see this transformation. It needed the love and attention of community members and Liz has been phenomenal. We have managed to get quite a few City departments to work together and the space is friendlier for the kids that play here,” said Ms Jowell.