A fine for cleaning up our neighbourhoods is ridiculous

Now we’ve heard it all. If you and others in your community start cleaning up your neighbourhood because your municipality doesn’t do its job, you could be a criminal.

That’s the upshot of what happened in Pretoria North, where residents working to clean up litter and undergrowth were told by metro cops that they were acting illegally. We would be interested to see exactly what bylaw they were referring to which forbids community-minded action.

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The city’s spokesperson said people wanting to embark on such actions should coordinate with the authorities so there were no “misunderstandings” with council workers.

This, he implied, could lead to violence … Meanwhile, no doubt the officious metro cops allowed scores of moving traffic violations to go unnoticed …. That’s where we are in SA 2022. Our roads are potholed, our cities filthy, overgrown cesspits. And when we try to do something, the official red tape tries to strangle us.

The same sort of red tape President Cyril Ramaphosa identified this year as a deterrent to business and job creation. It seems clear that the people who rule over us are not happy that we are seen to be going the jobs they refuse to do. That is a basket-case mentality.