Finance minister Tito Mboweni has bemoaned the state of downtown Johannesburg's streets, describing them as filthy and embarrassing.

In a tweet on Thursday, Mboweni compared the city's roads to those in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, which he said are "clean and beautiful".

"What a contrast!" said Mboweni of the two cities.

In an updated tweet, Mboweni said all of us had a responsibility to keep our towns, cities and the countryside clean and habitable. “If we don’t throw dirt around and the municipalities collect rubbish regularly, we can achieve a lot,” he said.

The city's mayor Herman Mashaba has been at the forefront of attempts to keep the city clean since he was elected.

Mashaba's monthly, city-wide volunteer cleaning campaign, A Re Sebetseng, was launched in August last year. It is based on the successful monthly cleaning campaign of Kigali, named Umuganda.

A Re Sebetseng means "let’s work" and calls on communities to take ownership of their communities by working towards a common goal: a clean city.