I WOULD like to compliment Msunduzi Municipality horticulturist Mbulaleni Tshivase for a job well-done.
The appointment of Tshivase was long overdue, although he needs the support of all PMB residents as well as the Department of Environmental Affairs and other affected departments.
The Department of Environmental Affairs is not doing enough to educate people about littering. This education is supposed to be done at schools and in communities.
Pietermaritzburg, being the capital city of the province, is the filthiest city in KwaZulu-Natal. It is high time that the authorities take control of the situation and that by-laws are enforced.
The city should take into account all factors affecting its beauty. There are things that contribute to the dirt of our city, such as unregulated business signage. You find shoddy signage put up all over which makes our streets and buildings look bad. Businesses such as beauty and hair salons, street vendors, bars, spray-painting businesses, etc., all contribute to the economy and job creation, but they need to be formalised or regulated in order to alleviate the filth in our city.
The city also needs to enforce control in our taxi ranks by educating the taxi-rank managers on how to keep public transport infrastructure clean and neat.
We need campaigns like “Keep Pietermaritzburg Clean” or something similar to the awareness campaign that is used by the eThekwini Municipality to make it clean. I think the time has come for the city to come up with an environmental strategy to make our city beautiful and give confidence to foreign investors. Keep up the good work, Tshivase.
SBU MNCUBE
Pietermaritzburg
