KEEP our coast clean by all means, but no need to stress about doing it just to impress Johannesburg holiday people.
Their city is an absolute pigsty and it wouldn’t be surprising if many of them have already escaped to us merely to get away from the stink. The South Coast is ‘pristine’ in comparison.
The entire Gauteng seems to be serviced by a company called ‘Don’t-Pick-It-Up’ and rubbish is just left to pile up outside homes in leafy suburbs and strewn all over the streets in the city centre.
Seeing this and other experiences really makes one realise that we take our beautiful coastal paradise for granted.
Apart from the ongoing strike by ‘Don’t-Pick-It-Up’ workers, traffic and congestion just gets worse by the day and one can’t leave the house without a wad of cash in the pocket to pay for parking and shopping. After all, there’s nothing else to do in Gauteng but ‘shop till you’re broke’.
We are blessed with beaches and the sea to enjoy free while one has to bribe people in Gauteng parks to avoid getting mugged.
If you ever HAVE TO go to Gauteng at any stage, this tip could save your life: DON’T take it for granted that you know here you are going!
As an example, we were driving down Doreen Road on the West Rand, heading towards the north. “Just go straight,” I said to my designated driver (my wife, Linda), “I think all these roads should get us there.”
It was a picturesque area with the good road running past horsey type places, wedding venues, countryside retreats with quaint names… through another busy intersection… all going well.
Another intersection running across the famous Beyers Naude road: “Just keep going straight, love.”
Suddenly… chaos! We were slap-bang in the middle of the infamous shack town, Zandspruit, with rocks, burnt-out vehicles and tyres still smouldering – after weeks of demonstrations by locals – strewn all over the road.
They were angry over Eskom cutting off the entire township’s electricity supply.
Luckily, the hundreds of residents seemed to be all demonstrated out and, in spite of some curious looks, they let us make a U-turn and head back to the main road. One can only imagine what they were thinking: “Bloody tourists… lost! Just let them go.”
The moral of the story: Don’t take our coast for granted, look after what we’ve got, partner and help our municipalities to find new sources of revenue so that we can uplift all our people.
We can’t afford… and we certainly don’t want… anything like Zandspruit or towns that evolve into rubbish dumps.
PS: Congratulations to Bevis Fairbrother on winning Best Regular Column at the recent Caxton Awards, no mean feat! Does that mean we now need to call him ‘Sir Butthead’?
