Hennops Coughs Up Giant Shoe and a Bigger Question

Photo Credit: Helen Duigan & Andre Jacobs

A giant shoe pulled from the Hennops gave us a good laugh, but the mountain of waste surrounding it tells a far less amusing story – and one that still needs people to care.

Johannesburg, South Africa (21 September 2026) – Clean-up volunteers may have found proof that giants once roamed Joburg and surrounding areas…or perhaps Bigfoot.

In a recent post shared by Helen Duigan, co-founder of ARMOUR (Action for Responsible Management of our Resources), a rather puzzling piece of rubbish took the spotlight.

Duigan took to social media to find the very big pair of feet that walk among us. Some claimed it was Big Foot. Others brazenly claimed that the shoe fit them. Another said it was once an odd award handed out by a local running club. Maybe we’ll never know.

A funny find, it also draws attention toward a greater issue.

This shoe is just one piece of rubbish, adding to a million and some more currently flooding the Hennops River. These photos below – shared by a local resident following recent rains – shows the scale of the pollution currently unfolding along the river.

Sadly, Hennops River Revival – the local organisation that has, for nine years, cleaned, healed and restored the heavily polluted river, has closed its doors.

As we observed World Cleanup Day and CleanupandRecycle week 2026, the organisation announced it would be shutting down.

The giant shoe may have given us a laugh, but the scenes surrounding it are far less amusing.

Much of what continues to make its way into the Hennops is everyday waste, carried downstream in staggering amounts. With Hennops River Revival now closed after nine years of work, there is no doubt that a huge gap has been left behind.

There is still hope. Rivers do not heal because of one organisation alone. Hennops Revival has made an incredible impact over the years. Its closure, however, does not mean that efforts to save the river stop here. A river heals when people care enough to show up, clean up, speak up and change the habits that send waste into them in the first place.

The Hennops is still here. And hopefully, so too are the people willing to keep fighting for it.