Stompie hotline nailing the smoking nuisances

Be very careful not to throw your cigarette butt out of your car when driving in Cape Town - you could be reported to the city's "stompie line".

Western Cape premier Helen Zille tweeted on Monday that there were "many complaints about ciggies thrown from cars".

"Cape Town now has a 'stompie line' to which you can report this [plus] car registration: 021-424-7715," she tweeted.

The 24-hour complaint line, which also receives tip-offs about air and water polluters, has received 1684 complaints since it was set up in 2007.

Cape Town is the only city in South Africa with such a hotline.

Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokesman Nana Radebe said that the city did not have by-laws prohibiting this behaviour and eThekwini spokesman Thabo Mofokeng said Durban had only an illegal dumping hotline.

"The main focus [in Durban] is on educating people to change their behaviour," he said.

When Twitter user @nuknad asked Zille: "What happens to the offender?" she jokingly responded: "Cruel and unusual punishment!!".

But the divisional commander of fire safety in the city's fire department, Gerard Langenhoven, said that if someone dropped a cigarette butt "in a fire-risk area" his department would trace the vehicle's owner and summon him to appear in court or pay a R1500 fine.

Langenhoven sends warning letters to smokers who disobey the by-laws in the town's less risky areas.

"If a guy tosses a butt in the CBD it's not going to set the mountain alight," he said.

Over 1000 people have received warning letters and one person has been fined since the hotline was established.

Head of operations at the city's call centre, Jaco Groenewald, said that people who reported by-law offenders should be prepared to write an affidavit and appear in court.

People who phone the number were sometimes unwilling to be named, he said.

In January 2006, British tourist Anthony Cooper was charged with culpable homicide and breaking the National Forestry Act after a fire on Table Mountain claimed the life of another British tourist, Janet Chesworth. Cooper was acquitted.

Yussuf Saloojee, director of the SA National Council Against Smoking, said that about 23billion cigarettes are smoked in South Africa every year, equating to about 63million cigarette butts discarded every day.

He said that discarded cigarettes that started fires caused damage of R40-million.