Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsWaste pickersWith the failure of the fence, security now relies on brutality. The waste pickers saythat security staff regularly assault them with whips and confiscate the material theyhave collected. They believe that they are being excluded because the landfill staff– security, municipal workers and management – are muscling in on the recyclingtrade and see the pickers as competition. There seems some justification for this viewas SAMWU shop stewards acknowledged that some workers do some recycling on theside although it is not permitted. The pickers observe workers focusing on high valueitems such as metals.This new approach to security has taken a heavy toll on the earnings of the pickers.Previously, the top earners made as much as R1,750 a week while the lowest earnersmade R200. This was supplemented by items picked for their immediate use value.Some items, such as paper and metal were picked for the recycling market but muchof it was sold through informal networks. This included chicken feed discarded froma local factory and expired supermarket foods that cannot be resold in the formaleconomy. They relied on smell to detect rotten or contaminated products. Buildingmaterials also found a ready informal market.Now the pickers either sneak around security or enter the site over the workers’ lunchbreak. Some make deals with security although others regard this as divisive. Time forpicking is much reduced and earnings have been cut by half in the best cases and tovirtually nothing in the worst. The pickers estimate that there were as many as 1,000people working the site but say many have now given up.People arrived at dump picking by many different routes. Caroline Dlamini had 15years experience picking at a site in Johannesburg but returned to Pietermaritzburg tobe with her family. Her speciality was white paper which gave the best returns. NtokoMadondo and Thokozile Mbatha both begged for a living but could not supportthemselves. The dump had provided them with a liveable income. Dumisani Zondihad a job doing piece work but that was unreliable and he got a steadier incomefrom the dump. Douglas Maphumelo lived in a shack settlement and ran his owninformal tuck shop in a neighbouring suburb. He was an activist in the HomelessPeople’s Federation and, when the authorities decided to remove the settlement, hewas targeted because of his role in resisting the removal. His home was demolishedtwice and the police arrested him for trading and confiscated his stock. The policemanthen gave the stock to his own brother who ran a shop. Maphumelo had first come toWasting the Nation - groundWork - 157 -