Are we living in a police state?

Not yet. But it is sure beginning to look like it. Look, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that we are oppressed, or that we have no rights – we have one of the best constitutions in the world. We even had a political and cultural revolution without any major conflict – look at world history, things like that almost never happen.

But what happens when your rights begin to be impinged upon by the same laws that are there to protect them? This all seems very silly to me because, we have a right to freedom of expression, but, we are slowly losing the means by which we can express ourselves.

The point of this rant is merely to talk to you – the public, about the by-law that aims to remove and prohibit all the graffiti in Cape Town, be it illegal, or even on your own private property. But, I mean, you all know about this, right? You've been told about this proposed by-law, because public opinion matters, right...right?

I've said public “visual” art because this proposed by-law essentially states that if you wanted to paint something on your own building or home, you would be breaking the law - and with the beauty of legal semantics this would constitute as "highly degrading graffiti".The only thing you will actually be allowed to paint is your street number, and that's pretty much it.

Graffiti has always been the ultimate form of subversive expression – and I'm not talking about the random “tags” and offensive words – but the more intricate, more confrontational and thought provoking type that breaks the static and very old-fashioned (or elitist?) idea that art should just be in a museum to be looked at and analysed to death. It has its roots in protest, and if you look further back, we had frescoes and murals being painted on buildings during the renaissance. And even further back we have cave drawings and hieroglyphics.

On the other hand, with an eye on the environment, the by-law does protect natural surfaces from defamation. And yes, some of the graffiti we get is pointless, illegal and damaging to someone else's property. The debate has been volleyed across the two sides for some time now, and both make valid arguments. I personally believe that some illegal graffiti can be seen as acts of civil disobedience, which, as a matter of fact, is allowed by the constitution.

Graffiti has been used to protest a lot of injustices in the world– from the Berlin wall, the West Bank Wall (by renowned graffiti artist Banksy), to the installation of CCTV cameras or even homophobia.

Since the by-law hasn't come up for consideration yet, you can still make your voice heard. Sign a petition and let more people know about this.

But if you honestly believe that this is all okay, then at least do us a favour and smile for the CCTV cameras, because we all know that there's no business like totalitarian business.