Graffiti looks great

Jacci Babich of Northcliff writes:

Congratulations all round to every resident who has been involved in the Westdene Graffiti Project!

What a difference it makes to have a bit of colourful art adorning walls instead of mindless squiggles of paint.

It always confounds me where yobs who enjoy defacing and destroying everything around them, get the money to buy the ‘easy to conceal – easy to steal’ spray paint?

Any offers to tart up my gates or spruce up my outdoor chairs instead?

When you think about it, graffiti only began in the ’60s but when spray cans went into high-volume production in the ’70s, gangs began using it to tag their areas of activity, much in the manner of dogs urinating to mark their territory.

By the ’80s, graffiti was in boom mode and it became a worldwide and very expensive problem to keep cities clean.

Even a national park in the USA had to close its gates when vandals began defiling natural areas with their senseless “selfies with paint’ tagging.

Some councils, like those in New Zealand, came up with clever ideas to discourage the trend by inviting local artists to transform various walls in their towns.

The idea was to inspire good art, encourage tourism, advance the attractions of the area and make residents proud of their towns and cities.

Today there are quite a few brilliant graffiti artists led by Banksy – the most famous of all.

He uses both humour and satire to get his message – very often political – across.

In fact, one of his walls were sold recently for 1.8 million.

We could do with a Banksy here in South Africa to poke a political paunch or two!

Instead of all the DIY stuff residents are forced into, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a council that did something pro-active instead?

Even something unusual like a spot of maintenance?

From their eyrie atop the hill in Braamfontein, perhaps our Council officials haven’t even noticed the litter, filth, unkempt streets, lack of signage, broken pavements and more that residents are now having to put up with?

We do see it. We are living in it every day and we hate it.

We wonder why we are paying collective rates to maintain and beautify our suburbs when it is not happening?

We also deplore the way council officials responsible for this sorry state remain incommunicado behind the ineffective call centre and try to ignore us.

Like in one of Banksy’s latest pieces, we refuse to just be ‘Swept under the Carpet’.