Pimville, Soweto, has long struggled with illegal dumping sites that have become hazardous spaces for children, hotspots for crime and substance abuse, and symbols of community neglect. Together with a local recycling activist already working to address the issue, we set out to transform the area's most dangerous dumping site into a community vegetable garden.

The challenge wasn't cleaning the site. It was convincing people to care.

Years of neglect had normalised the problem, and traditional awareness messaging would simply become more background noise. Instead of asking the community to feel guilty, we decided to make the dumping site funny.

So, we decided to develop an official eviction notice for rats, flies and cockroaches.

With no budget for influencers, we created our own. Three larger-than-life township characters inspired by the dumping site's most loyal residents: a rat, a fly and a cockroach. Speaking in the language, humour and cultural nuances familiar to Pimville residents, the characters proudly defended "their" dumping site through short-form comedy videos, challenging the community to come and take it back on Clean Up Day.

The humour transformed an environmental issue into a cultural conversation. The videos spread organically across TikTok, WhatsApp Statuses and community groups, creating anticipation rather than obligation.

Comedy became the invitation. Community action became the punchline.

The result was a community-led clean-up, the creation of a vegetable garden, new partnerships with schools, churches and local government, organic media coverage, fundraising for irrigation infrastructure, and a campaign model that is now being shared with other community organisations to replicate in future clean-up initiatives.