After having spent time in various parts of Durban, a relative from New Zealand described Durban’s condition as ‘filthy, unkempt and an insult to previous generations.’
The condition of streets, verges, traffic islands and open spaces always shapes visitors’ impressions. Since summer started, eThekwini municipality’s attempts to tame and to trim nature’s growth have been glaringly absent. Thus, the metre high grass that abounds everywhere, streets strewn with trash, piles of abandoned road tar (spoil) excavated for repairing burst water pipes – that is the image Durban projects.
The ANC has had 25 years to learn that a priority in summer is to ensure nature is kept in trim and not allowed to reach the out of control state that now prevails metro-wide. From that, the obvious conclusion is that the ANC and its co-opted one-seat party minions are incapable of governing and that eThekwini is a failed municipality.
But having allowed this situation to develop, the tragedy is that for many it is regarded as the new normal. Un-cleared rubbish simply encourages the dumping of more trash. And, of course, littering anywhere, anyhow, occurs without the slightest twinge of conscience that it is wrongful and should lead to a fine.
Instead of the ANC’s Marxist embrace of centralised control, outsourcing the maintenance of public spaces, verges, gutters, etc. to private contractors, ward by ward, could avoid the mess that has been allowed to proliferate.
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