It's been a long, hard winter, but Cape Town is now cleaning up its act to welcome its summer visitors, says mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.

He was speaking at a mass clean-up of an illegal dumping hot spot on a field between Forest Village and Mfuleni, in Blue Downs, on Thursday for the launch of the City's annual Spring Clean Cape Town campaign.

“We do the extra effort, we step things up, we go the extra mile to clean Cape Town for the summer because we know we had a long, difficult, wet, cold winter. All our visitors are coming from Johannesburg, Durban from all over the world, and for everyone who lives in Cape Town, we want them to live in cleaner communities and a cleaner city."

The campaign is now in its third year, and Mr Hill-Lewis said everyone could play their part by organising neighbourhood clean-ups and picking up litter.

Bingo, Cape Town's anti-litter mascot, will be making public appearances to encourage Capetonians to "Bin it in the Bingo bin".

Mr Hill-Lewis said: “With these annual spring-clean campaigns, we are hoping to entrench a culture of never littering in Cape Town and to encourage the public to get involved in community clean-ups. We are also driving a culture of pride within the City."

The City was allocating extra staff to cleaning drains and clearing illegal dumping, he said.

Part of a drainage upgrade in Kosovo, in Philippi, had been completed, he said, adding that the City would also press ahead with road improvements, which had been difficult to do during the rainy season.

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis gets his hands dirty during a clean-up of an illegal dumping hot spot on a field between Forest Village and Mfuleni, in Blue Downs. PICTURE: BHEKI RADEBE

City cleaners tackle mounds of rubbish on the field near Forest Village. PICTURE: BHEKI RADEBE

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