Walter Ramoba, 40, will leave the Vodaworld informal settlement for two days this week to go home and to visit his doctor in Limpopo.
Years of working as an informal recycler in Midrand, Johannesburg, have left him with constant pain in his back and around his hips. Every day he and colleagues will make four trips around the area filling a trolley load, which can weigh up to 200kg a trip, according to Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising.
But Ramoba’s concerns over his health are dwarfed by his worries that he could be left without an income to provide for his wife and four children, as the owner of the property on which the recyclers live wants his land back.
Last week, the community of 107 waste pickers went to the Johannesburg high court to prevent their eviction. They were represented by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (Seri) and Lawyers for Human Rights. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) assists the court with information. The community falls under the African Reclaimers Organisation (ARO), which has informed the court case.
The applicant is Rycloff-Beleggings (Pty) Ltd, the registered title-holder of the property, which plans to develop the land. It claims the recyclers have created an eyesore preventing its buildings from being occupied.
Rycloff, however, is working with the City of Johannesburg to relocate the recyclers before removing them from the property.
ICJ said lawyers asked the court to consider the impact of the potential eviction order on the rights to housing and work of the recyclers “and the right to health of both the recyclers and the broader community, particularly in the context of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic”.
Seri attorney Khululiwe Bhengu said: “This eviction application not only threatens the reclaimers’ access to housing but also their ability to put food on the table. We hope that when this matter is finalised the reclaimers will have a home that accommodates their right to work and dignity.”
Ramoba and other community members said they had no bad feelings towards Rycloff and were happy to move to any accommodation the city chose as long as it was within the vicinity of the informal settlement.
“I’ve worked here since 2006,” Ramoba said. “We have a routine – we go to certain buildings every week so they know: ‘Walter is coming on Monday, so we put out the bins on Monday’ ... And every day we come back and sort the waste, and once a day a truck comes to us and weighs our bags and we get paid.
“If [the city] decides to place us in Orange Farm or Diepkloof and so on then we have to get a taxi to this area or walk [kilometres with the heavy bag]. We could maybe get a bag a day, but once sorted it [won’t be enough to sell].”
A full bag of plastic, for example, has a payout of about R45, and it may take a week for a recycler to collect just one bag of plastics.
Another issue is that each area has its own community of recyclers who may not be welcoming of 107 people vying for their piece of the recycling economy in that area.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research said waste pickers were estimated to have saved municipalities between R309.2m and R748.8m in landfill space.
According to Rycloff [the applicant’s] heads of arguments, brought to the court on October 19 2020, the company is finalising an offer to lease and redevelop the area with the new development valued at more than R456m.
But the potential occupant of the proposed development has indicated it will not proceed with the development should the occupiers continue to stay on the property neighbouring the development.
It said it did not immediately remove occupants from the land because it did not think they would settle in the area.
“It became clear ... having attempted to get the respondents to vacate the property over two years, that they were not willing to vacate.
“Between 2015 and 2018, the respondents’ occupation of the property had morphed into a bustling recycling zone, and the numbers gradually increased.”
On February 22 2019, the sheriff gave the community two months to vacate.
But the company said if the court found that the eviction would lead to homelessness and that there was a need for the city to provide alternative accommodation, then the city should be ordered to find the occupants another home.
City of Johannesburg (COJ) spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said the city had a constitutional obligation to provide temporary emergency accommodation (TEA) “only to the extent that they are rendered homeless or will be rendered homeless as a result of the eviction”.
He said the city conducted an investigation into the community and filed a report.
The matter was heard by Justice Windell on March 1 2019, and the following remedial order was granted:
- The city needed to file a new report as a result of the pandemic, which set out specifics that relate to the city’s ability to provide TEA.
- By April 30 the city needed a list of the identities of all the occupiers of the land.
- The city needed to ensure that no further people accessed and occupied the property.
- A further report had to be filed by August 20 with evidence and documents that supported facts on whether the city could provide alternative accommodation.
Vodaworld informal settlement community leaders Maxwell Maphokoba, 42, and Petrus Lehasa, 47, said despite the court papers saying occupation started five years ago, there were members of the community who had lived there for 15 years.
Maphokoba arrived from Lesotho in 2006 and began work in the area. He said by 2009 the community began to grow.
He said they got along with the landowner and understood its concerns.
“We got together and cleaned the space. We have also agreed ... to a 7pm cut-off from activities where everyone must be in or near their shacks, no music or loud talking.”
ARO chair Eva Mokoena said recyclers did not pay to be registered to the organisation, which works with the city and Seri to accommodate the communities.
The organisation provided potable water and portable ablution facilities to the community.
There are two roads into the community from both sides used daily by recycling vehicles from paper, glass and plastic companies.
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