Waste pickers picket for rights as they recycle

WASTE pickers are demanding adequate land to recycle the waste they collect.

This is what a group of waste workers demanded when they decided to picket outside the City of Cape Town offices last week, commemorating International Waste Pickers’ Day.

The workers used the opportunity to remember waste workers who were assassinated at the Universidad Libre de Barranquilla in Colombia in 1992.

“We used the opportunity to remember our comrades and we wanted to find out what the City of Cape Town is doing to meet our requirements,” said Nokuzola Dumalisile, a member of the Waste Pickers’ Movement.

In 1992, waste pickers were reportedly tricked by personnel from the Universidad Libre de Barranquilla, who invited them to enter into the premises of the university under the pretence of providing them with recyclable materials.

Once inside, they were allegedly beaten and shot to death so their bodies could be used for research and organ trafficking. The incident was denounced by a survivor, who pretended to be dead and later escaped.

The workers also handed a memorandum to the City of Cape Town. “We handed over a memorandum to the City with our demands and we also handed in one in July 2016, so we wanted to follow up on the other one as well,” Dumalisile said.

Among the demands the movement listed was recognition of waste pickers as workers, safety of working areas for waste pickers, land for recycling in their communities, healthy and protective ways of working and that the City reply to their previous demands.

More than 60 000 waste pickers make a living by collecting recyclable material on the streets and on landfill sites.

According to the International Labour Organisation, there are more than 20 million people engaged in recycling in the world. – marvin.charles@inl.co.za

“MORE THAN 60 000 WASTE PICKERS MAKE A LIVING BY COLLECTING RECYCLABLE MATERIAL ON THE STREETS AND ON LANDFILL SITES