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> dumpseThekwini has pretty much completed that process. Msunduzi is just starting out withits brutal exclusion of waste pickers while tendering out <strong>the</strong> contract for <strong>the</strong> recyclingfacility. Fur<strong>the</strong>r down <strong>the</strong> municipal hierarchy, Emfuleni and Sasolburg representdivergent responses. The initiatives at Palm Springs are possible precisely because<strong>the</strong> dump is informal and because <strong>the</strong> municipality ignores waste, leaving Loate toact on his own very considerable initiative. At Sasolburg, in contrast to Msunduzi,Metsimaholo has fenced <strong>the</strong> reclaimers in ra<strong>the</strong>r than out in order to facilitate <strong>the</strong>appropriation of <strong>the</strong>ir pickings.‘Green’ initiatives such as recycling and CDM projects appear as prime candidates forprivatisation. Ironically, this might be producing <strong>the</strong> kinds of business opportunitiesthat will give waste a higher profile in council. Thus, <strong>the</strong>re are rumours that Msunduzicouncillors have business interests in <strong>the</strong> New England Road recycling facility whileenforcing <strong>the</strong> Remade-Phutang contract on <strong>the</strong> reclaimers seems pretty much <strong>the</strong>beginning and end of Metsimaholo’s interest. That it appears to have acted at Sasol’sinstigation is perhaps testimony to <strong>the</strong> local politics of patronage.At <strong>the</strong> same time, <strong>the</strong> ‘green’ opportunities are drawing municipal managers into <strong>the</strong>wider circuits of ecological modernisation – particularly CDM, following <strong>the</strong> successof eThekwini – creating links to global institutions and giving waste a shade of glamourthat it previously lacked. Thus, eThekwini mayor, Obed Mlaba was quoted by <strong>the</strong>World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund:I think <strong>the</strong> example we are setting in Durban, working with <strong>the</strong> WorldBank to deal with landfill, is a huge innovation. We are turning dirt andgarbage into a raw material that we could grow wealth from. If you wantedto say to yourself, ‘we want to be <strong>the</strong> cleanest city in <strong>the</strong> world’ waste, in myview, is <strong>the</strong> best place to start. [quoted in Patel 2008]Ecological modernisation is here associated with <strong>the</strong> broader project of neo-liberalglobalisation, CDM being regarded in most sou<strong>the</strong>rn countries as ano<strong>the</strong>r channelfor foreign direct investment with fierce competition for projects, accompanied bycomplaints that Africa is losing out on this as on o<strong>the</strong>r investment.The priority given to capital similarly makes recycling a thing of <strong>the</strong> markets. Prior to<strong>the</strong> commodities boom, only <strong>the</strong> waste pickers did it, finding value at <strong>the</strong> point where<strong>the</strong> formal market – or capital – has terminated all value. The character of waste at<strong>Wasting</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Nation</strong> - groundWork - 177 -