As part of their annual cleaning campaign, learners of the Khanyisa Education Centre took to the streets of Giyani Township on Friday in a bid to raise environmental awareness in the community.

Since last year, the school has dedicated one day of their academic time to cleaning Giyani Township. Learners who took part in the cleaning campaign come from Grade 7 to 12.

The organizer of the cleaning campaign, Barry Firth, who is also a teacher at the school, said the campaign is aimed at showing the community the importance of environmental cleanliness.

“We want to send a clear message that it is important to conserve our environment because caring for our environment is the first step towards tourist attraction. A clean environment ensures a balance of nature and also helps to make our town attractive. We are also instilling a culture of cleanliness in our learners because we want them to grow up into responsible future leaders…”

Firth added that he hopes the message will go to other schools around Giyani that it is important to take care of the environment.

“We hope other schools will follow suit and preach with us in one voice about environmental cleanliness. We hope the immediate community will also learn from our campaign that it is important to care for the environment…”

One of the learners who took part in the cleaning campaign, Makungu Mutarini, says she has learnt to be more responsible since the campaign started last year.

“I want to encourage other young learners from different schools to take part in campaigns of this nature because it benefits the community. A clean man in a dirty town is still regarded as a dirty man, so it is very important to be environmentally conscious…”