Pesticide-Free
Cape Town
let’s UnPoison our city one suburb at a time
Indigenous plant species
Bird species
Rivers
Wetlands
Residential Wards
Km's of Roads
City of Cape Town Municipal Weed Control
Every day, South Africans are exposed to a toxic cocktail of pesticides, herbicides and chemicals, not only in our food, but in our urban environments, at home, at work, at school, on sports fields, public parks, and playgrounds. These chemicals contaminate the spaces where we live, learn, and play, affecting our health, our children, our natural resources, and the ecosystems that sustain us.
UnPoison is helping to stop the blanket spraying of toxic pesticides in suburbs and towns across Cape Town and South Africa, at City, suburb, and citizen level, advocating for safe, sustainable, and pesticide-free suburbs.
We believe that manual weed removal is the very best practice for Cape Town to adopt. It is it safe for humans, animals and the environment, and also helps to create municipal jobs, using budget for people empowerment and environmental stewardship instead of poison.
While we campaign for the City to change it’s weed-control policy, we support suburbs to take a stand against being sprayed with toxic pesticides. After our success with Noordhoek, the first suburb in Cape Town to achieve roadside spray-exemption in 2023, we have helped many more suburbs achieve exemption and become removed from the City’s pesticide weed-control spray schedule. We are here to help you and your suburb do the same.
With tools, templates, and a community of suburb champions to support your success we can help guide you and your community stop the spraying of toxic herbicides so that you can lead your suburb to become a safer, healthier, toxin-free urban environment.
If you are ready to champion your No-Spray suburb action, this is the place to start!
Add Your Voice
The easiest way to help us stop the blanket herbicide spraying of suburbs, roadsides and parks by the City of Cape Town is to complete the poll below, and share it with your neighbours and community. If we can show that your area is against spraying – we can help your suburb gain exemption from the City’s pesticide spray schedule.
Did you know?
Cape Town’s blanket herbicide spraying covers over 10,000 kilometers of roads twice annually.
Highly hazardous pesticides are routinely applied in residential neighborhoods, schools, and parks, often without signage or prior notice, in contravention of labeling requirements and safety guidelines.
Only active ingredients in isolation are tested for safety, the formulations are not.
Co-formulants can make pesticide products 2000 times more toxic than the active ingredient alone.
Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in South Africa.
Contaminated urban runoff is poisoning Cape Town’s 14 rivers and 10 wetlands.
Studies show pesticide pollution significantly reduces human sperm motility.
Become a Suburb Champion
Lead your suburb to become Poison- Free!! If you are against the blanket spraying of pesticides on your suburb’s streets, side walks, parks, and public green spaces and would like to help your suburb attain exemption from the City’s spray schedule, click the button below and sign up to be a Champ! We’ll support you with tools, templates and resources, and a community of other champs to help you get your hood poison-free!
FAQ's
Commonly asked questions about Cape Town’s Blanket Weed-Control Roadside Spraying, and Becoming an Suburb Champion.
What herbicide is the City of Cape Town spraying on our roadsides, parks, and verges?
During summer:
Systemic Non-Selective Herbicide on hard surfaces
Product: KleenUp (Glyphosate 360 g/L)
Application rate: 10L/ha
Action: Kills existing weeds; no residual effect. Absorbed within two hours. Any herbicide landing on non-plant surfaces degrades within 10 to 24 hours.
During winter:
Pre-Emergence Herbicide on hard surfaces
Product: Esplanade (Indazyflam 500g/L)
Application rate: 150ml/ha. That is 150ml on a road distance of 20km
Action: Prevents seed germination through root absorption. Requires rain for activation and has a residual activity of approximately three months. Safe for use in the root zone of trees; biodegrades through microbial activity.
Selective weed control of broad leaf weeds and winter grasses on sport fields and parks:
Product: SuperLawnweeder (MCPA, 2,4D, Dicamba)
Application rate: 5L/ha.
Action: Selective systemic control of only broad leaf weeds, without effecting turf grass.
Adjuvant
Product: Wetcit Duo (natural citrus oil)
Function: Enhances herbicide performance by improving leaf coverage, adhesion, and penetration, accelerating absorption.
Is it legal for the City to spray these public areas?
Unfortunately yes, as long as they are compliant with their own spraying guidelines. Please view, download, and share our Is This Legal? City Spraying Compliance Infographic here which shows everything you need to know in simple accessible terms, and for those that want to examine the nitty gritty details, find the City’s contractor tender document here
How do I report illegal spraying?
1. The City has created a complaints and reporting portal with a complaint form to fill in which you can access here and then send through to contact.us@capetown.gov.za, and please cc poisonfreepeninsula@proton.me, and unpoisonsa@gmail.com
2. UnPoison has our own reporting form which is more thorough which you can find here. This helps us track misdemeanors that we collect and use in our advocacy to help change policy. We will submit your complaint to the City and cc you if your report comes via our portal.
What can I do to help stop the blanket spraying of herbicides in our suburbs, parks and roadsides?
- NB!! Fill in and share our Herbicide Spraying Poll for Suburbs this adds your vote to a growing movement and shows you are against the blanket spraying of toxic herbicides in your suburb. This data is used to back up our campaign with the ultimate goal of changing city policy to move to manual weeding and job creation. Hundreds of cities and towns all over Europe and UK have gone pesticide free – yet we are the most bio-diverse city in the world – so why can’t we??
- You can become an UnPoison Suburb Champion and with our support, tools and guidance, lead action in your area to gain exemption from the city’s spray schedule. Contact us here to become a Suburb Champ and we’ll add you to our Suburb Champ group, many of whom have already walked the journey and achieved spray exemption success! You’ll also get access to all our tools and resources. Let’s work together to help Cape Town go Poison-free!!
- You can join the public awareness group Poison-Free Peninsular (run independently of UnPoison), which posts general information and updates about the city’s spraying by emailing the group admin who will add you to whatsapp group.
What is the role of a Suburb Champion?
Suburb champions coordinate local action to stop blanket pesticide spraying in their suburbs by the City. They liaise with local residents, councillors, other champions, and UnPoison, and organize community alternatives (like manual weeding), and monitor for non-compliant spraying activity. If you would like to become a champion for your neighbourhood, please get in touch here and we’ll onboard you with resources, tools and support.
Is there any other way for me to get involved?
The best ways to help are:
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to DONATE – we are a volunteer run organisation with the potential for great impact, but our projects are stalled and limited due to resources and capacity, and we regularly experience burnout. Our first prize would be regular monthly donations which would be a game-changer for us! We are a PBO so all donations are tax deductible. Bank details: bank FNB; UNPOISON; acc number 63028240777; branch 250655; NAME + SURNAME as reference; if you would like a tax exemption certificate please send POP with your contact details to unpoisonsa@gmail.com
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If you have skills to contribute like project management, research, data analysis, community management, digital media, graphic design, communications, visual communications, video creation, or fundraising and donor applications WE NEED YOU!!!
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Please follow us on all the social media channels, facebook, instagram, linkedin, and youtube, and share with your friends – our social media is very bare due to capacity, but hopefully with the help of some passionate superheroes we’ll be getting more of our voices out into more places cross SA and the world soon
