"Simple Things": 702 Walk the Talk Train Ride Through Johannesburg Shocks Viewers With Litter
- A video filmed from inside a train during the 702 Walk the Talk event on 26 July 2026 captured the state of Johannesburg's urban corridors
- The clip, shared by @OurCityNews, showed litter-strewn embankments along the railway route between Ellis Park and Park Station
- South Africans online were left deeply unsettled by what the footage revealed about the inner city
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Source: UGC
A train ride through Johannesburg meant to celebrate civic pride ended up sparking a very different conversation online.
On 26 July 2026, a point-of-view clip filmed from inside a moving train made its way across social media. The footage was captured during the 702 Jozi My Jozi Walk the Talk event, as participants travelled between Ellis Park and Park Station. What the camera picked up along the way stopped many viewers in their tracks.
The railway tracks, running through one of South Africa's busiest urban centres, showed embankments buried under rubbish, thick scrub, and neglected land sandwiched between residential and commercial buildings. The clip offered a raw, unfiltered look at a city struggling under the weight of its own waste.
Walk the Talk, a Different View of Joburg
The 702 Walk the Talk returned on 26 July 2026, drawing a record 25,000 participants to reclaim and celebrate inner-city Johannesburg. Presented by Radio 702, civic movement Jozi My Jozi, and the City of Johannesburg, the event offered three routes of 5km, 8km, and 15km, passing through neighbourhoods like Maboneng, Newtown, and Braamfontein. The event also partnered with homelessness organisations MES and U-Turn.
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But for many watching the train footage, the celebration clashed sharply with what the camera captured outside the window.
Johannesburg's Litter Crisis in Full View
Johannesburg has been battling a worsening waste management crisis for years. Over 2,000 active illegal dumping sites strain the metro's cleanup operations, while frequent disputes at Pikitup, the city's waste management utility, have disrupted regular collections. Accumulated rubbish clogs stormwater drains, worsens flooding, and accelerates road damage.
South Africans watching the clip on the X page were not quiet about it.
@MTNdata1 said:
"This is YEARS of CoJ employees not doing the work they were paid to do. Salaries and increases month after month, year after year. Where are our rates and taxes then?"
@GeeCheena77461 wrote:
"ANC is failing, simple things are a big task for them."
@Awh2054 reflected:
"Many years ago I lived in what was then Rhodesia, and crossing into SA was immediately struck by the amount of litter! A few years ago, driving through a huge taxi rank in Harare, I was struck by the cleanliness. South Africans have always been litterbugs!"
Watch the train journey that left South Africans talking:
More on Johannesburg's litter crisis
- Briefly News recently reported on a Cape Town ward councillor sharing footage of streets littered with waste after repatriation gatherings.
- Taylor Swift fans bought pieces of rubbish collected outside her New York wedding venue for hundreds of rand each, turning trash into treasured memorabilia.
- A Durban man explained why phara's tip out their collected recyclables onto the ground, revealing a clever informal recycling strategy that intrigued South Africans online.
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Source: Briefly News
