Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
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Chapter 6: Down at <strong>the</strong> dumpsThe low priority given to waste is common to most municipalities – with councillorsand senior managers “wanting it just to disappear”, according to Jogiat. So councillorswho couldn’t get anything better end up serving on waste committees. For someobservers, this is linked to <strong>the</strong> fact that, in contrast to sectors such as housing, wastehas not produced business opportunities for councillors. More general pressures from‘unfunded mandates’ across <strong>the</strong> range of service delivery pushes waste down <strong>the</strong> orderof priority. eThekwini perhaps is an exception to this trend. DSW has put considerableeffort into persuading council of its importance and, according to Parkins, waste isabout fifth on its list of priorities.Privatising …Irrespective of organisational form, <strong>the</strong> trend to privatisation is common. Even wherewaste services are not corporatised, functions are outsourced on <strong>the</strong> edges of <strong>the</strong> originalcore business of collecting and disposing waste from formerly white high income areas.So privatisation is frequently associated with <strong>the</strong> expansion of services into black areas,often on <strong>the</strong> rationale of creating ‘entrepreneurial opportunities’ for local business– which may mean contract labour employed directly by <strong>the</strong> municipality or indirectlythrough a labour broker, or it may mean that collection is outsourced. The effect is toreproduce racially defined differentiation of services.In <strong>the</strong> end, however, ei<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> municipality pays <strong>the</strong> contractor directly or people,redefined as consumers of waste services, pay. Municipalities may make savings in<strong>the</strong> short term but, in line with <strong>the</strong> overall experience of privatisation, <strong>the</strong>y will likelypay more in <strong>the</strong> long term as <strong>the</strong>y increasingly lock <strong>the</strong>mselves into dependence onmonopolistic service providers.… labourIn <strong>the</strong> meantime, savings are less about <strong>the</strong> superior efficiency of private enterprisethan <strong>the</strong> lower wages paid to workers and women workers in particular. Samson showsthat male workers, permanently employed and with full union rights – equivalent toWebster and Van Holdt’s ‘core labour’ – are predominant in <strong>the</strong> traditional core wasteservice areas. In Johannesburg, “Forty per cent of workers employed by Pikitup werewomen, 93 per cent of whom were employed in <strong>the</strong> feminized street cleaning section”[2008b: 28]. Most of <strong>the</strong>se women were previously employed as ‘permanent casuals’.Although <strong>the</strong>y are now being made permanent by Pikitup, <strong>the</strong> number of workersemployed in street cleaning has been progressively cut. This no doubt looks good as- 174 - groundWork - <strong>Wasting</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Nation</strong>