Displaced waste pickers demand return to landfill site

Displaced New England landfill site waste pickers in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, who were removed from the Msunduzi municipality's landfill site in August, on Thursday staged a protest seeking to return. 

The waste pickers, who make a living out of picking up recyclable material from waste at the landfill site, said they face a bleak Christmas. Some of them have been working at the site for over 20 years.

Ntombifuthi Mhlophe, 47, said life had been difficult following their removal.

“We are barely coping. There is nowhere we get income and we can't even pay for our burial society [insurance]. We have children to feed,” said Mhlophe.

She said on a good week, she would often pocket over R2,000 from her waste pickings. Some of the waste pickers hail from as far afield as Greytown.

About 250 people turned up for the protest. The mother of three said they had expected more people to come.

“Ordinarily we are well over 500 people. But some people were unable to come because they did not have enough money [for transport],” said Mhlophe.

Groundwork, the environmental justice service and developmental organisation, said on the morning of August 26, more than 10 private security and police cars stormed the landfill site and a helicopter hovered above the frightened and confused waste pickers, including the so called “illegitimate waste pickers” who have since settled at the landfill.

 Groundwork's  waste campaign manager Musa Chamane said the municipality had previously been advised by the uMgungundlovu district municipality as well as waste pickers themselves that access control is needed at the site.

Chamane said groundwork used to have meetings with waste pickers and officials at the landfill site but it became dangerous as armed gangs were visible at the site.

He said a waste pickers' committee had a meeting with city officials, and they agreed that at one point the landfill has to be closed for a couple of months, so that criminal elements that have infiltrated the landfill can be forced to leave and only waste pickers remain.

"When the police raid came it was believed by the committee that the raid had good intentions. When the waste pickers asked the officials from the municipality, they were told to forget about going back to the landfill," Chamane said.

The city had in the past faced challenges, which included the frequent fires, which would often plunge the KwaZulu's-Natal capital into a blanket of smoke.

Chamane maintained the law approves of waste pickers’ presence at landfill sites as long as access was controlled.

Chamane warned that the Pitermaritzburg waste recycling industry was on the verge of collapse due to waste pickers not being able to provide and contribute waste materials.

Msunduzi mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla, who accepted the memorandum of demands from the protesting waste pickers, said while the municipality was aware that the waste pickers went to the site in their bid to earn a living, that did not take away the dangers of them being at the landfill site unauthorised.

“The city risked losing the landfill site licence if it failed to accordingly address challenges facing the New England landfill site,” said Thebolla.

He said there will be further engagements on the issues raised in order to find common ground.

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