Zoo Lake a microcosm of the grating littering scourge across SA’s public parks

Littering might not seem as important as collapsing infrastructure, corruption, community safety and struggling municipal finances, but it is.

This lowly newspaperman vented about this issue some years back on a different platform, but it is so grating, so frustrating, so widespread, so intransigent and so important that it is imperative that it be revisited.

It concerns a park called Zoo Lake in Johannesburg but it could apply to any green lung or public space anywhere in South Africa. It could apply to metro, town, dorpie, township and suburb. So let us use Zoo Lake as a starting point. The more than-a-century-old park has been a melting pot of leisure, recreation and jolliness for residents from across Johannesburg and the whole of Gauteng. It was bequeathed to the city by wealthy landowners (yes, beneficiaries of colonialism, but let’s leave that for now) who insisted in the agreement that it be open to all races. As a result it was one of the few places during the apartheid years on which people of all races could descend without being subjected to segregationist laws and regulations.

It was a no-brainer then that when apartheid was dismantled Zoo Lake would become the natural destination for Gautengers. It hosts festivals, picnics and wedding shoots. The park is a paradise for joggers and walkers from all corners of the city. Pockets of stokvel societies and church sects gather there on weekends, festooned in different uniforms. On Eid ul-Fitr, which comes at the end of Ramadan, the faithful from different parts of the continent and the world come to Zoo Lake to celebrate, resplendent in the fashion of their respective regions. 

One of the reasons Zoo Lake has continued to be such a jewel is that the community has been very active in keeping it pristine. Teams of volunteers plant and prune, donate resources and interact with the municipality about the welfare of Zoo Lake. The City also recognises the centrality of Zoo Lake in the life of Gauteng and tries (and sometimes fails dismally) to pay attention to its upkeep. The homeless who lurk around there are well aware of their surroundings and integrate well into the environment.

So far, so beautiful. Then there is the not-so-beautiful.

Walk through Zoo Lake on a weekend morning or on a Monday and it is as if Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have just unleashed yet another terroristic attack on a real or perceived enemy. Such is the litter that covers Johannesburg’s most precious green lung. There are polystyrene containers, empty cooldrink cans and bottles, plastic bags and KFC boxes. The mess is there despite dozens of bins all over the park, which remain empty while the litter lies scattered just centimetres away. Who cares? Somebody else will pick it up and I’ll come back again some other time and find it as clean as I found it this time.

After the cleaners pick up the rubbish Zoo Lake returns to its pristine self. The ducks quack, the walkers and joggers go through their exercises, the homeless resume their routines, lovers sit on the benches and admire the passing show and revellers and picnic groups arrive in sedans and minibuses to enjoy themselves. By the end of the day it is Armageddon all over again. Pass by the next morning and it is as if Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have… well… ja.

It is grating and frustrating. This is not the story of an elite suburban park. It is the story of so many public spaces throughout our good republic. We drop things everywhere, toss cigarette butts out of our windows, urinate on the sides of roads and against walls of buildings and houses that are not ours and generally do not care about our surroundings. That just speaks of a degenerate society.

The 2026 local government elections are just four weeks away and there is a lot of talk about what we expect from those who will run our municipalities. We are being made promises by politicians about what they will do for us but very little is being said about the little that we should be doing about our own neighbourhoods. In the greater context of local government failure littering might seem to be a peripheral matter. It does not seem as important as collapsing infrastructure, corruption, community safety and struggling municipal finances. But it is. One need not go into the exhausted “broken windows theory”, but it is a real thing. A dirty city shouts failure and fuels failure.

In his address to the nation last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa instructed that “every municipality must begin a women’s safety audit without delay” and that “high-risk areas must be identified”. These audits “must identify broken streetlights, overgrown public spaces, abandoned buildings, unsafe transport routes and facilities, poorly secured parks and other conditions that place women at risk”.

These are things that municipalities should be doing anyway. They do not need to be instructed to do so. Their doing the basics will go a long way towards not just securing women, but all citizens. A much tougher ask will be to tell citizens to respect themselves and their surroundings.  If they respected the streets on which they live, the roads they commute on and the places of leisure where they unwind, they would also respect their fellow citizens. And surely that would do a lot to lift the moral consciousness.

After the November elections the new local governments should devote as much attention to public cleanliness as they do to service delivery and finances. It is not an add-on. It matters as much. DM