Hey white man, stop dancing!
An open critique of Adriaan Basson’s article titled: “The curious case of the black litterbug”
I came across Adriaan’s article discussing littering in South Africa. While I was not particularly impressed with the article’s title, I was truly hopeful it would address, or at least approach the general problematic culture of littering, and yes, while it is not exclusively black South Africans that litter, it does seem to be more prevalent amongst the black population and in particular poorer communities in South Africa. There are many reasons for this but let’s not get caught up in the weeds, let’s get into why we all need to work together to fix it. That means we start to have an open dialogue. (Very scary for many of you in 2023, I know!)
We all have seen with our own eyes the amount of rubbish strewn through townships in South Africa. I do not find it acceptable to see other South Africans living in and around garbage. (even if said South Africans are OK with it)
How do we start to clean things up, where do we start?
I feel it’s incumbent on all of us to openly ask this question and seek to find real solutions. Now instead of going into one of our typical hysterical racial tail spins that makes Julius phone his sugar daddy Mazzoti and mobilize the red tele tubbies fighters, let’s think about this...
What is the right thing to do?
Would it not be prudent to address the littering issue? Would real compassion not be tough love in this case, and incentivising a culture of respect for our country be optimum? Do our citizens not deserve to take pride in their country and themselves, or should we just revert to that same old soft bigotry of low expectations?
Can we discuss this or are you going to go ask your Uber driver for us? Or maybe your domestic worker, in fact Adriaan, go out and ask any black person you encounter. That will give you answers, hey? No Adriaan, asking a few people you encounter why there is a culture of littering will give you no real answer and I’m not surprised you received the response you did from your colleague . The idea an individual would be able to explain the behaviour of millions of South Africans is absurd.
Can you imagine what 50% less litter and garbage scattered across the country would achieve? Do you think this would improve hygiene, and most of all the dignity of people living in poverty stricken areas. We are not even going to begin to discuss the benefits to drainage systems and the environment this would have. This is not something that is too difficult to achieve, and similar interventions have been made in other countries with great success.
What would it look like to see kids playing in the streets together without rancid liquid garbage and wrappers flowing down every gutter and sidewalk?
Why is it after both Boxing Day and New Years day the beaches are covered in garbage. It’s disgraceful.
Is the problem that not enough dustbins are available? Do we need social education programs about keeping our country clean?
These programs are nothing new, I remember Zibi the Ostrich, and his slogan “Zap it in a Zibi Bin”.
Do we really think South Africans are not capable of fostering a culture of cleanliness, and most of all respect? Are we going to continue to ignore very obvious problems that can be solved, if we have the courage to address them, regardless of whom it might “offend”. Let’s not be like Zibi and continue to bury our heads in the sand!
Which brings us back to Adriaan’s article.
Yet again we see another ‘stereotypical’ fluffy, nothing burger article by a South African “journo” who clearly is afraid to get his own hands dirty and broach a serious issue, so he writes an apologists thesis on the littering habits of other South Africans, while simultaneously telling white men they shouldn’t dance.
This is ironic considering how much dancing Adriaan Basson has done around this topic.
Author: Eligh Burnside
~ Dedicated translator of South African media “newspeak”.