Clean South Africa Foundation: “We Are Not a Political Organisation. We Are a Behavioural Change Organisation.”

Clean South Africa Foundation has noted comments and questions from members of the public suggesting that the organisation is politically affiliated or aligned to a particular political party.

The Foundation would like to make its position clear:

Clean South Africa is not a political organisation, does not represent a political party and does not campaign for any political party.

Clean South Africa exists for a different reason.

We exist because South Africa has a litter and waste problem, and we believe that changing the country’s relationship with waste requires changing human behaviour.

As a civil society organisation, Clean South Africa works to encourage South Africans to take greater responsibility for the environments they live in. Our work focuses on education, awareness and action, with the goal of changing habits and mindsets around littering and waste.

We recognise that South Africa’s waste crisis is not caused by citizens alone. Infrastructure, waste collection, illegal dumping, municipal capacity, enforcement and broader systemic challenges all form part of the picture.

But we also believe that these challenges cannot be addressed without confronting a difficult reality: human behaviour is part of the problem.

A country can build more bins, improve collection systems and strengthen enforcement, but if people continue to regard littering as normal or someone else’s responsibility, the problem will continue.

That is why Clean South Africa focuses heavily on the role of the individual.

Our message is not political. It is personal.

Whether someone supports the ANC, DA, EFF, IFP, MK Party, PA, ActionSA, another political party, or no political party at all is not relevant to our mission.

Litter does not vote. Waste does not belong to one political party. And a clean environment should not belong to one side of the political spectrum.

Our communities, schools, businesses, public spaces, rivers, streets and neighbourhoods belong to all of us.

Clean South Africa will therefore continue to engage with government, municipalities, businesses, schools, civil society organisations, community groups and ordinary citizens where such engagement helps advance our mission.

Engaging with a government department or municipality does not mean endorsing the political party in government. Working with a business does not mean endorsing every position that business may hold. And speaking about failures in public services does not make an organisation a political party.

Our job is to ask questions, raise awareness, educate, mobilise citizens and advocate for cleaner communities.

South Africa’s Constitution protects freedom of association, expression and political choice. Clean South Africa respects those rights, including the right of every South African to support whichever political party or cause they choose.

We simply ask that the same principle be extended to us.

And most importantly, we are here to ask every South African:

What role are you playing in the state of the environment around you?

Because changing South Africa’s waste problem will require more than government action.

It will require a change in us.