The municipality and its service utilities should take a leaf out of the book of former New York mayor, Rudolph ‘Rudy’ Giuliani.
In his first term in 1994, the New York City Police Department adopted an aggressive enforcement strategy based on the Broken Windows approach.
This involved a crackdown on relatively minor offenses such as graffiti, turnstile jumping and cannabis possession based upon the theory that this would send a message that law and order would be maintained.
The Guiliani administration also created a computer-driven comparative statistical approach to mapping crime geographically and emerging criminal patterns, as well as charting officer performance by quantifying criminal arrests.
There were critics who argued the system created an environment in which police officials were encouraged to under-report or manipulate crime data, but it worked.
In Johannesburg, Metro police may issue fines of up to R2 000 or jail those found to have dumped illegally. But with illegal dumping so rife that it costs the municipality R170 million to eradicate it, then there are major problems.
Impose higher fines and increase the jail term. The law must be seen to prevail and offenders named and shamed.
The local authority should clamp down on minor offences, Giuliani style. Send a strong message that no kind of offence will be tolerated, including illegal dumping.
With some tender loving care and political will, Johannesburg can be as neat as Cape Town and Pretoria. That’s what ratepaying citizens demand and deserve.
As the municipal waste management entity rightly pointed out, the R170 million could be utilised to build houses, acquire new ambulances or any number of other projects that could bring Johannesburg up to world-class standard
