Masihlule ('Let’s win' in Zulu/Xhosa) is a waste management company that operates in Grahamstown and Port Alfred. It's owners built and used to run a workshop which processed waste at the Grahamstown municipal dump. The structure was made from 20x10m iron sheets that have remained on the site even after the company left the premises years ago, partly due to waste pickers’ disgruntlement.
While the workshop is closed and there is no permanent private operation at the dump, the waste pickers remain a permanent feature. Although there are many waste pickers who only come in the day, there is a group of around 20 who stay on the site and some have been staying there for 7 years.
The municipality doesn’t recognise them, and “why?” is a question they ask themselves every day.
After Masihlule abandoned the workshop, some of the waste pickers started to use the old workshop as a shade from the sun (there is not a single tree at the dumpsite), for cooking, and shelter from rain. When we visit the landfill, we are accustomed to finding the guys seated around a fire, preparing breakfast under this shelter. Despite how essential this broken down structure is, the iron sheets have since been disappearing. There’s only a small section of sheets on the one side - less than 5 percent and the other sides are bare. The workshop is being removed by Masihlule. Only the roof remains and it will also be gone soon, said Monde.
He told me that Masihlule has been removing the sheets.
There also used to be a building at the dump that the pickers who lived on the dump used as housing. This has apparently been removed by the municipality. A waste picker named Fistos Notyawa told me the rooms were demolished without any warning - the municipality told them they were not wanted in the landfill and they must leave.
On a Sunday in November, according to Fistos and Monde (another waste picker), municipal employees also sealed the water pipe the pickers normally used to get drinking water (as well as the security guards at the landfill).
"A waste picker named Fistos Notyawa told me the rooms were demolished without any warning - the municipality told them they were not wanted in the landfill and they must leave."
Masihlule is a white-owned company. The manager is called Mark and he operates behind the scenes with a man named Simphiwe to dismantle the workshop and remove the sheets. He is apparently using the sheets to rebuild or build a Masihlule office.
Simpiwe also operates as one of the middlemen who buy and collect the recyclable material directly from the site. It is said he pays the worst prices to the waste pickers. Waste pickers told me he was part of Masihlule as far back as the days when the workshop used to operate at the landfill. Monde claims that Masihlule received a large amount of money from the Department of Social Development to start the workshop on the site and used this money to build the workshop. It currently has, he says, an office in town behind the municipal offices.
Monde also told me that Masihlule is responsible for the blue and white recycling bins that were distributed across the township, although that the project has since failed. The containers were a waste of resources.
Mooi, another waste picker, told me that a municipal manager called Acie, together with a white manager from Masihlule, promised to bring containers - but it’s not clear what this means. The containers were to be used by Masihlule. Mooi didn’t say whether the municipality promised them an alternative place to stay or not and I also didn’t think to formulate this follow up question.
For now, times are tougher than ever. On our way out, we saw Fistos washing his clothes in a bucket. This was in front of a rusted container and this is where he sleeps. Nearby I saw semi-digested greens from an animal stomach, and these were still wet. I asked Fistos what was happening here, and he told me police and municipal officials came yesterday in the evening with a whole cow. They skinned and carved it, took all the meat for themselves and left nothing for the waste pickers. (I forgot to ask how many police/municipal officials, an important follow-up question).
Comentários