We are all aware of the amount of litter that accumulates each day at public spaces during the festive period, as thousands of visitors descend on Durban to party and braai along the Golden Mile.
This, most of the time, results in an unpleasant morning after, when paper cups and plates, plastic bottles, sweet wrappers and glass booze bottles are left strewn on the ground.
This week, the eThekwini Municipality shared a post on its Facebook page which depicted that exact eyesore. And at the end of each day, the City has to clean up ahead of the next wave of holidaymakers.
The post, which showed employees from Durban Solid Waste (DSW) cleaning up the parking lot at the old Bike n Bean restaurant, attracted more than 300 comments.
Many of these comments centred around the City taking action and possibly introducing fines to litterbugs who can't walk 10 metres to discard their rubbish in the many bins provided.
To make matters worse, there are around four bins clearly visible in the photograph, yet the lawn that leads onto the beach is strewn with litter left by seemingly careless visitors.
IOL asked the City about whether or not it could introduce a litter fine system and suggested using the City’s new CCTV surveillance room to help track the litterbugs and thus enforce a strict rule of law.
eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Mandla Nsele said their current education campaigns would work better, instead of the fines.
“The municipality is looking at how to best integrate CCTV usage with smart policing technology. We are of the view that our current education campaigns work better as they are designed to change mindsets, whereas such enforcement, would only result in good behaviour only when there is police visibility,” Nsele said.
A Durban resident, David Crouch, who commented on the post, said the lack of respect from people was fuelled by poor policing and lack of enforcement.
“If you were enforcing littering laws during the day. Even at R100 a fine this should start assisting your self infected issue.
“Start with the small things and the big things take care of themselves in most societies. Our issue is the self entitlement attitude that starts at the top,” Crouch wrote.
More than a hundred people liked Crouch’s comment.
The municipality responded to Crouch in a similar manner to that of its response to IOL, indicating that it stood by its education campaigns on polluting.
“Enforcement is already under way and Metro Police are taking a tough stance against offenders. Police have written summons and issued fines to those who contravene the by-laws.
“We also have educational programmes for residents and informal traders, with these in place, we are hoping people will change their behaviour,” the City responded.
IOL