Waste pickers lament nondelivery
It has been almost a year since 58 waste pickers, representing 15 cooperatives in Ekurhuleni municipality, were promised three-wheeler motorbikes — also known as Kariki Waste Ways — by the Gauteng department of agriculture and rural development and the politically connected company, Enviro Mobi.
The waste pickers still don’t have their karikis, meant to make it easier for them to collect waste. Instead, the department has had two launches that seem to have been mere publicity stunts. It has since emerged that the three-year, R26-million contract between the department and Enviro Mobi was unlawful.
The dodgy contract in which Enviro Mobi, a company in which ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe once held a directorship and now holds patent rights, has been referred by Gauteng Premier David Makhura to the Special Investigations Unit for alleged financial irregularities.
The Mail & Guardian spoke to some of the waste pickers who were expecting karikis.
Duduzile Mchunu, chairperson of Lakhwisha Waste Co-operative in Vosloorus, said: “Enviro Mobi approached me early last year and said they wanted to make the work of a waste picker’s life a bit easier. It really hurts a lot that we still don’t have motorbikes, which would have made a huge difference. This is how we make our living, this is how we pay our children’s school fees.
“And for a person to come and say they will do this for us, and not deliver, they are killing our business and our hopes ... that one day this business will be a mature business.
“This is a job to us; it is not a joke. We are proud of what we are doing on a daily basis. We wake up every day, we come here. Rainy, cold, hot and windy like today, we come here.”
Salphy Nkoana, chairperson of the Masupatsela Waste Co-operative in Tembisa, said: “After our sales we manage to share the money, but the most important thing for us is banking some of the money, so that if something is broken, we are able to fix it. Also, we are able to buy ourselves food and live.
“We were happy to work with Enviro Mobi and it took us through some training; I got a learner’s [licence] and I even now know how to drive a scooter. But we are still waiting for them to be delivered to us. “We have been to launches [organised by the Gauteng department of agriculture and rural development], but until now nothing has happened. We could be more productive and able to collect from many different places. We can even collect four or five times with those scooters.
“They brought three of those scooters here last year, but they then took them back for one of the launches. Since then, nothing.”
Suzan Kubheka from Intleindaloyakhe Waste Co-operative in Daveyton said: “We are waste pickers and also buy waste from households and Abomarhereza [informal recyclers]. I got to know about Enviro Mobi last year, when they told me that they got my name from the Gauteng department of agriculture and rural development’s database.
“They said that they would be implementing a pilot project to