“Unacceptable”: Municipal Worker Sweeping Rubbish Into Drain Leaves Durban Residents Fuming

• A Durban TikToker shared a video of an eThekwini municipal worker sweeping litter into a stormwater drain
• The worker was seen raking up leaves, grass, and litter from the road and pushing it all down the drain
• eThekwini Municipality launched an investigation into the employee's conduct after the video went viral

A TikToker @twinonqobangcobo, a content creator, posted a video on 7 January 2026 showing a concerning incident on a road in Durban. In the video, a municipal worker in the Durban area was wearing a municipality outfit and had a rake in her hand. She was tasked with cleaning the surrounding areas near a road. The clip showed her raking up bits and pieces of grass, leaves, bark from fallen trees, and litter that sometimes falls out of vehicles or gets thrown by passersby.

As she raked the area, she started to gather it all up. Instead of picking it up and putting it in a bin, she pushed it all down a drain. Quite a lot of litter went into the drain, and she continued doing this, gathering up litter from other areas around the drain and pushing it in. It's unclear as to why she did this.

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The video showed her walking on the road, finding a stray paper, raking it up, gathering more dirt from the top, and then eventually bringing it back down towards the drain and shoving it down. She used the rake to get it all into the drain. The clip then showed her going up on the pavement, picking up a bottle and another item that was thrown on the ground, along with several other litter items, walking forward with the rake in her hands.

The man shared the video with the caption stating that this is sometimes one of the things that blocks drains. A lot of people were quite angry with what the woman did as a municipality worker who is meant to be helping the community to improve. Watch the TikTok video below:

Municipality launches investigation

According to a press release by the eThekwini municipality, the city said it is aware of the video shared on social media showing an official sweeping litter into a stormwater drain. It said the matter is being taken seriously, and an internal investigation has already started.

The municipality added that the correct internal steps will be followed and stressed that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable. It explained that waste dumped into stormwater drains harms the environment by polluting rivers and damaging natural ecosystems.

SA unhappy with municipal worker

Social media users flooded the comment section with their reactions on TikToker @twinonqobangcobo's clip:

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@Queenleko wrote:

"Hawu lo mama. This results in the sewage system not being able to take water during floods. Kufe abantu."

@msizwe_anderson joked:

"Bro ready to clock out 😂😂😂"

@𝓜𝓲𝓷𝓷𝓲𝓮_🪽 pointed out:

"It's her checking the coast, so she knows ukuthi what she's doing is wrong."

@Lihle Mkhize questioned:

"Hey, you flopped, oh, why is that?"

More on waste management concerns

• Briefly News recently reported on South Africans being outraged by the state of Camps Bay beach after festivities.
• A driver threw litter on Cape Town roads, and a tour guide returned it to him, only for the motorist to toss it out again.
• South Africans reacted to a clean Johannesburg after the G20 revamp.

Proofreading by Kelly Lippke, copy editor at Briefly.co.za.

Source: Briefly News