Organizing on the Streets: A Study of Reclaimers in ... - Inclusive Cities

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WIEGO <strong>Organizing</strong> Series3.2 The Scoping ExerciseA general survey approach was used for the scoping exercise, but was by no means exhaustiveor even systematic. We told field workers that the more reclaimers they spoke to the better, andthat there was no set number. While it would be good to ask each person every question, evenan informal conversation was worth recording. The survey forms were designed to demarcateresearchers’ views, observations and reflections, from reclaimers’ words, views, and informationoffered.In approaching reclaimers, the research project was described as an initiative of an organizationinterested in workers organizing for a better life. We asked if we could take photographs and weleft them with an information sheet so that they could know more about the project, and possiblycontact us, or become involved in activist forums.We attempted to integrate the research into organization-building. By enlisting the aid of activistsas field workers the experience of conducting the research could contribute to building their ownnetworks, and organizations, and the project itself was enriched by the perspectives and energyof the research assistants, whose conversations about justice and oppression and organizing withreclaimers shaped the interview experience.We had initially planned a daily reflection form about the interview process and what we hadheard from reclaimers; a further component was later added to the survey where the researchassistants were interviewed on their perspectives of the challenges of organizing in each area.3.2.1 Implementing the Scoping ExerciseThe project included a preliminary examination of three areas:• Salt River-Woodstock• Khayelitsha• Philippi-Gugulethu.before deciding to focus in a more in-depth way on the Philippi-Gugulethu area.Between 24 November and 16 December 2009, the researchers and field workers carried outapproximately 75 interviews over seven research days in three areas of the city. Interviews lastedbetween 10 and 45 minutes.In each case plans were made to return to continue conversations or to meet with other reclaimers.In each area, we introduced ourselves to reclaimers coming to sell at local buy-back centres. Oftenwe needed to wait some distance away as owners of buy-back centres were hostile to our presence.Groups would form out of curiosity around the interviewer and some people would wait for aturn to be interviewed. Others were in a rush, but while walking alongside them we could ask ourquestions. Interviews were primarily done with individuals, or couples who collected together,except for Philippi where groups of women and organized associations were interviewed.In Philippi we also met a group of reclaimers who were attending a workshop run by theCommunity Organization Resource Centre (CORC). 3 The CORC staff took two of the researchersto Khayelitsha on two occasions. However, it was felt that it was important for researchers togo back and interview reclaimers independently, rather than being rushed and associated toonarrowly with the collection activities of CORC.3 CORC is an NGO that provides support to community networks: networks of informal settlements that aremobilized around evictions and basic services and women’s collectives that are mobilized through savings(source www.corc.co.za/snailproject.html)4
4.1 Salt River-Woodstock<strong>Organizing</strong> on the Streets: A Study of Reclaimers in the Streets of Cape Town4. The Scoped AreasSalt River-Woodstock is an old industrial area in the first ring of neighbourhoods that surroundthe city centre (about 1 kilometre east of Cape Town). Salt River is a railway junction which makesit a central meeting point in Cape Town. It is a working class, historically ‘coloured’, largelyMuslim, area. The area was originally made up of ex-slaves who were given land on the edges ofcity-centre farms when freed in the 19 th century. Many dock workers, and later Jewish immigrants,took up residence in the small cottage row houses that intersperse the industrial sites in the area.Despite attempts during the apartheid era to declare Woodstock and Observatory exclusivelywhite areas under the Group Areas Act, Salt River continues to reflect its historical demographicroots. Woodstock and Observatory, which are both adjacent to Salt River, are, however, bothgentrifying. They have each recently been deemed ‘improvement districts’. 4 Alfred, a reclaimer inthe area, observed: “I don’t have a place to stay… I used to work in the construction industry andwe have built most of these buildings you see in Albert Road but now I do not have a place to stay.I cry when I see these buildings.”Observatory hosts many University of Cape Town students. In Woodstock there has been a waveof removals of people in informal shelters or who have occupied buildings and are unable to paythe increasing rents, to Delft. Light industry is still found in the area, and the sub-standard livingconditions of overcrowding in crumbling buildings continues in the area as well. There is alsoa new wave of immigrants from other parts of Africa, who have settled in sub-divided singleresidencyoccupation in buildings along the lower main road. There are men’s shelters that arehome to African migrants on nights they can raise enough money for the shelter (R25 a night).Unlike many areas of the city during the xenophobic attacks of 2008, there has been no collectiveviolence against migrants from other African countries in the area, and many choose to reside inSalt River-Woodstock for its central location and affordable housing options. 54.1.1 Buy-back Centres in the AreaThe main buy-back centres are L&B Scrap; Uni-Scrap in Salt River; and Naledi, Sunshine andMetal Mania in Woodstock. These centres claim that they buy only a small proportion of theirscrap from street reclaimers. Mostly, they buy from ‘bakkies’ [small pick up trucks] deliveringfrom steel and paper companies, and do their own on-call collection. There are sign boards upwith set prices. 6 At Sunshine they told us that there are standard prices set by the end-users –who are big businesses in the scrap industry. However, each buy-back centre determines whatit will pay reclaimers, and there is little room for negotiation. One owner of three centres in thearea told us that there is no room to negotiate prices, and “If you want to negotiate you must lookfor different places” to sell to. At Naledi a worker told us that “individuals just accept what weoffer or the prices that are set”. He asserted that big business dealers do bargain. Reclaimers fromoutside the area said they came to Salt River-Woodstock to sell because of the prices offered. Onebuy-back centre person said that despite Mondays and Wednesdays being the days that municipalwaste was collected in the area, Tuesdays and Thursdays were their busiest days because “[t]here is less waste from companies” delivered early and later in the week. Likewise at SunshineMetal on Albert Road the owner excluded street reclaimers from his description of the valuechain, saying that he buys from “all people – plumbers, people from firms… people struggle on4 For more, see Jayne Garside, “Inner city gentrification in South Africa: The case of Woodstock, Cape Town,”GeoJournal. 30.1 (1993), pp. 29-35.5 General photographs which we took of the area are included in our research materials/files. Also seewww.michaelvr.co.za/render.php?pg=detailed.html&detailed:acode=4#6 For example, the sign at L&B reads: S/B R35.00; Copper R30.00; Brass R20.00; S/Steel R7.50; Alloy R4.50; BatteryR0.60; Lead R2.50.5
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