About 20km from Jozini all thoughts of the view are quickly eradicated by the build up of litter and rubbish along both sides of the road .............. not the scatter of plastic bottles, bags and paper to which we have become so accustomed throughout South and Southern Africa, but mountains of sundry household rubbish of every kind piled 2 meters wide and at least two meters high on both sides of the pass road for the entire distance to Jozini.
At various times during our travels over the last few years we have experienced the degradation of towns since 1994 almost to the point of no return in places such as the once beautiful and thriving copper mining town of Musina on the Zimbabwean border, and Kokstad in the Eastern Cape, where on our last visit in 2014, raw sewage was running in the roadside gutters. But I had never experienced anything quite like the litter and filth that pervaded the pass up to and including the town of Jozini. Once through the mountains of rubbish either side of the pass road, driving into the town came as even more of a shock. All of the pavements, up to and including at least a meter or so into both sides of the road verges, were totally over-inhabited by traders of every kind, their various wares spread everywhere in amongst the detritus of their original and days old packaging - cardboard, plastic, bubblewrap, whole and broken timber palettes, plastic and glass bottles of every description, old discarded and rotting vegetables, and worst of all, here and there heralded by an all pervasive smell, little piles of human excrement.
What, I wondered, allowed people to descend to this level of utter and absolute degradation? Not far away, in amongst the beautiful hills of Northern Kwa-Zulu, the traditional villages remain generally clean and well kept despite the fact that litter everywhere has become an all pervasive scourge to which the people seem almost entirely oblivious. Seeing all this I can't imagine it taking less than a generation to clear the mess - and that only if the will is there ............... in the meantime it is only going to get worse unless both National and Local Government institute the necessary policies and fines to begin turning things around.
Strangely enough, in amongst all of this "uncaring" there is an oasis of hope - a place where those in charge have made a move to end the litter and introduce a modicum of self-respect amongst the people who abide in the immediate vicinity, creating a very definite "Spirit of Place" which I believe is felt by all who pass through there. That place is St.Lucia and the Reserve up to Cape Vidal. Well done to all those who have managed the turn-around.
Road through the St.Lucia Reserve
St.Lucia Riverine Forest
Lake St.Lucia
Waterbuck on Lake St.Lucia
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