Cape Town Drivers on Butt Watch
Smoking drivers will have to watch their butts in South Africa's tourist draw card Cape Town after a new hotline was launched for motorists to report those who throw cigarette ends out the window.
"We are getting quite a lot of calls on the butt line," said an operator who answered the hotline on Wednesday.
"Within the last hour or so, I've already had three to four calls, myself only."
Western Cape Premier Helen Zille warned on Twitter that drivers tossing their "stompies" -- local slang for butts -- would be tracked down, sent warning letters and kept on file.
"Many complaints re ciggies thrown from cars. Cape Town now as a 'stompie-line' where you can report this + car registration," Zille tweeted on Tuesday.
Cape Town is nestled around landmark peaks dominated by the flat-topped Table Mountain, a national park, and has a high risk of runaway fires in the summer.
In 2006, a British man was charged with culpable homicide after he was accused of starting a blaze on the mountain which killed an elderly British woman by flinging a lit cigarette onto dry grass. He was later acquitted.
Source: Agence France Presse
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