Perspective: A poor excuse

Last Friday a provincial government function by the department of sport and recreation for women working for KwaDukuza, Ndwedwe and Mandeni municipalities left Salt Rock beach in rather a shocking state.

The picnic area was littered with KFC boxes, coke bottles and plastic packets and, in the centre, a rather poignant and sadly empty rubbish bin.

The event was titled “100 years of Albertina Sisulu, Women of Fortitude: Women united in moving South Africa forward’. I wonder what the ‘mother of the nation’ would have thought of the behavior of her ‘children’?

Also read: Municipal workers leave Salt Rock beach in a terrible state

When we contacted the authorities, everyone was rather quick to say they ‘should have organised a clean-up crew’.

KwaDukuza said that unfortunately their cleaners had already knocked off for the day (and yes they did a sterling job of cleaning up the following morning).

But I think this rather misses the point.

Adults, especially those representing government at any level, should not need anyone to pick up after them.

When the story went online most of the comments revealed outrage at the behaviour but one person commented with a sassy quip of “Rich people’s problems”.

I disagree. While litter might seem insignificant next to the enormity of many people’s daily struggles, quite frankly this is just as much a problem for the poor as for the rich.

No one wants to live in a rubbish dump. Yet many South African townships and informal settlements are plagued by growing mountains of refuse that have just been tossed down next to the road.

Those who make the choice to litter are degrading the standard of living for their neighbours, with a number of consequences (including making people sick, forcing children to play in unsafe environments and polluting the water, to name but a few).

An excuse I often hear is that poor people just do not know any better. This is an insult to the poor.

To see if this is really the case, cast your eyes across the border.

Nowhere could be poorer then Zimbabwe.

The country is so poor right now that having actual physical cash in your wallet is almost unheard of.

People queue outside the banks daily but most do not get the luxury of drawing money from their accounts.

Chatting to a Zimbabwean woman who now lives in Groutville, I wanted to know if Zimbabweans (at least in her experience) faced similar problems with litter.

She comes from a simple, rather rural upbringing and now lives with her family in a single room in Groutville.

I was rather surprised when she categorically told me, “No, we do not litter.”

When she first moved here she was shocked by the filth people lived in and wondered why they did not take pride in their homes and communities.

She has since concluded that South Africans “want something for nothing”.

In other words, people here believe their rubbish should be picked up by the municipality but that they weren’t willing to pay for the service.

“In Zim you would be fined and made to clean up your own rubbish,” she said.

I am not sure what the solution is, only to implore everyone who reads this to take personal responsibility for their own litter and to report those who disrespect our shared spaces. We need to start insisting that the culprits be held accountable. Be it a chip packet or a truck load of waste dumped in a side street, littering is not acceptable.