GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & City of Cape Town Mayoral Candidate
08 July 2026
The Orwellian over regulation of the City of Cape Town has just taken its next step by telling residents they may no longer feed wild birds in their own gardens. Only caged animals qualify. Free birds, apparently, are a bylaw violation. And if you feed these birds, you are at risk of facing a penalty.
Let that sink in- an official has decided your backyard is not your own. That a sparrow at a feeder is a compliance issue. That the discretion of an environmental health inspector now extends into your private space, overriding your right to enjoy your own home as you see fit.
This is not about birds. It’s about a City that keeps finding new corners of citizens’ lives to regulate, and new excuses to justify it. First, it was Capetonians being told they couldn’t paint a Palestinian flag on their own wall.
Then comes the timing test – more than six minutes of a dog barking within a one-hour period counts as a public nuisance. So, you better get out your stopwatch if you live in Cape Town.
Now it’s bird feeders. Small, almost laughable infringements, until you notice the pattern. That is exactly how creeping authoritarianism works: not with one dramatic seizure of freedom, but with a thousand small ones, each too petty to fight, until one day the City has a rule for everything you do inside your own front door.
A healthy ecosystem has birdsong in it. A healthy democracy has citizens who are free to feed them.
Capetonians do not need a permission slip to live in their own homes. We will keep saying so, one small infringement at a time, until they stop coming.
Media Enquiries: media@forgood.org.za