A litter licence is the silly solution

I AM SURE that everyone has noticed how much the world has changed since the “Great Covid Catastrophe” of 2020.

When the lockdowns hit, companies went into survival mode – slashing jobs, cutting costs, closing offices, and trimming operations to the bone. Many never fully recovered.

My colleagues and I certainly felt it. Friends in government, the private sector and education all sing the same tired song: the work has doubled, but the people to do it have halved.

So we push through – griping, groaning, but surviving. We’ve learned to rely on one another, to pull together as teams where everyone carries their weight.

Now imagine what would happen if, in your already stretched workplace, a few colleagues decided to take it easy, coast through the day? Obviously, the burden would increase on those who had their shoulder to the wheel.

But it could be worse. 

What if there were people in your workforce who intentionally and constantly worked against your best efforts? To me, it’s obvious – the dedicated, committed, and hardworking labourer would break down in exhaustion.

Kimberley’s situation mirrors this perfectly: a handful doing the work, while others undo it.

Recently, I wrote about how even the most committed municipal workers (the ones who actually WORK) can't reverse Kimberley’s decline if people in this city keep working against them. I argued that until a culture of cleanliness is created, Kimberley will stay stuck in its filthy downward spiral.

Some of the chatter on social media urged us not to be so kind to the municipality. In fact, one reader shot from the hip: “Blaming the residents when the municipality should be held accountable for turning the whole Kimberly into a pigsty … but hey!! It's your ‘opinion’ and now I can’t wait for your ‘suggestions / recommendations’ to turn things around,” he wrote.

Truth be told, “turning things around” is not going to be a quick fix. Yes, we can sit back and point fingers, assigning blame to an organisation, a group or individuals. But at the end of the day – what I originally argued, and that some may have missed – a turnaround in Kimberley, and indeed South Africa, is going to require a change in mindset.

The comments on Facebook are there for everyone to see, and one reader had an insight.

“Lee Kuan Yew took the hardline when rebuilding Singapore … Dealt with corruption, implemented tough laws against littering and vandalism; there’s no eating while walking except at designated areas, no bins at street corners yet it's so clean. That’s the type of leadership needed here.”

Tough, committed, consistent leadership, yes! That’s definitely needed. But the leadership needs to have a goal, a vision, a plan, and a direction. And they need to be able to not merely punish lawbreakers, but get people to buy into and embrace this vision.

And if they refuse to embrace the long-term revival plan? Then maybe our city fathers should consider issuing littering licences?

Allow me to be silly for a while …

Here’s how “Littering Licences” would work: Purchase the licence for about R15,000 a month – it has to be expensive, because we have to make it an exclusive, desirable, premium, niche item – and you’d have the freedom to drop wrappers, bottles, plastic and all forms of rubbish freely, with no fear of condemnation or censure. 

However, litter without a licence and you could be fined … let’s say double the licence fee! Why double? Because half of that fine will go to the first person who reports the litterbug. The other half of the fine goes into the “kitty”.

So what happens to the licence fees in the kitty? Simply pay those who have to slave in the biting cold, or scorching heat, to clean up. 

We might as well use people’s stubbornness to the city’s advantage, don’t you think?

OK, so all of that was tongue in cheek. But wouldn’t it be something if something could actually be done to turn Kimberley around? The fact is, it’s no longer a case of a whimsical hope; we’ve reached the point of making a drastic decision immediately!

I say this because it’s a concern that the young people currently growing up in the city have never seen what Kimberley looked like in its heyday. Their day-to-day reality is of a filthy town drifting towards slum status, and they will eventually believe that growing up in dirt and overgrown sidewalks, and driving potholed roads is normal.

Oh, for the record, it’s not. And those contributing to fouling up the city, as well as the minds of our youth and children, whether by their neglect or by their active destruction of this town, should – to be fair – be made to answer for their actions.

Ultimately, our generation owes the next generation more than a city collapsing into its own filth.