Municipal officials are taking the best for themselves, say waste pickers

Waste pickers at the New England Road Landfill dumpsite told GroundUp that officials, security guards and cleaners at the site, all of them employed by the Msunduzi Municipality, sometimes stopped them picking up items so they could take for themselves.

Last month, waste pickers on the dumpsite protested after a city executive committee meeting raised the possibility of closing the site to waste pickers, citing safety concerns. Since the protest the matter has not been discussed again and the waste pickers are continuing to work on the site.

But waste pickers say municipal employees are on the site picking up what they want first, before letting the waste pickers in.

Qhamukile Ndlovu, 35, from Jika Joe settlement, who has been working as a waste picker on the site since 2006, said security guards, municipal employees and “even some from management” rushed onto the site when new goods were dumped.

“We have no one to report the matter to. All of us are from different places and we are here for different reasons. Some survive by selling what we get here. We don’t expect people who are working to be the ones who are giving us problems inside the dumpsite,” said Ndlovu.

Another waste picker, Sihle Malombo, said some of the municipal officials had their own customers to whom they sold goods.

“These guys are greedy and if we had powers to put them behind bars we would do that. They are selfish because they are taking away something from us. They are working and get salaries in their bank accounts every month. They shouldn’t be doing what they are doing. This is our life, we depend on what we get from here and they are taking that away from us. What they are doing is called greed and they must stop,” said Malombo.

He said they would be happy if the municipality attended to the matter.

Msunduzi municipality spokesperson Nqobile Madonda said the municipality needed proof in order to act.

She said employees and security guards were not allowed to recycle any material from the site. The security guards were there to “ensure safety and security of staff and users, and to control the activities of the pickers,” she said. “They are not there to prevent the pickers from undertaking their activities.”

She urged waste pickers to contact the head of security or the municipal manager with “tangible proof” of their complaints.