Cabbage Bandit: anarchy taking root, or a hero?

HE gave himself the moniker “The Cabbage Bandit” and now Joe “Djo” BaNkuna is going to court to contest a fine issued by the Tshwane Metro Police for his roadside vegetable patch.

BaNkuna has described on social media how he “has become a criminal”, was fined R1500 and told to get rid of the cabbages, pumpkins and other vegetables growing on the corner outside his property in the northern Pretoria suburb of Theresa Park.

“Let the court decide; maybe we can change this apartheid law,” he announced with reference to municipal by-laws which allow the planting of grass on the city’s verges, but not veggies.

BaNkuna said he started his vegetable patch in 2019 to support his wife’s charity work in Soshanguve, and he also planted mealies, pumpkin, sweet potato and other crops at a nearby park to meet demand. He would prefer to see more people follow his example than have useful food gardens banned because they “interfere with municipal property”.

A city official has been quoted as saying BaNkuna’s motives are not as pure as he makes them out to be – implying he may be involved in land grabbing and selling vegetables for profit.

Be that as it may, he appears courteous to the Metro Police officials who come to issue him with the fine, and has received widespread support with some on social media agreeing municipal by-laws are antiquated and vegetable gardens that provide food for the hungry is “decolonial work” that should be widely adopted.

Tshwane MMC for community safety Karen Meyer confirmed a complaint about BaNkuna’s vegetable garden – which spans the entire sidewalk – was received and investigated. She said in terms of the city’s by-laws, the road reserve belongs to the municipality, and permission was required before one could make changes to it.

BaNkuna is not the first to make such a garden: people around the country turned areas outside their homes into community vegetable patches in the early days of the pandemic.

We welcome the matter going to court as this should provide a case study on where by-laws may be reconsidered to allow this type of endeavour in a well-managed manner.