“I was in the rubbish dump looking for something to eat,” said Zisiwe Gabangxana describing the day Angie Thomson found her at the municipal landfill and offered her a job.
“I was in the rubbish dump looking for something to eat,” said Zisiwe Gabangxana describing the day Angie Thomson found her at the municipal landfill and offered her a job.
Now Gabangxana is paid to work where she previously scavenged for food for herself and her four year-old daughter.
The Masihlule Recycling Project was founded by Thomson to help people in similar situations to Gabangxana.
Masihlule Development Officer, Nosipho Manona says although the women have to work in a dirty and smelly environment and often come across dead animals and other unpleasant things, they were in those surroundings and far worse ones before.
“They don’t complain and are grateful to have a job,” she said.
The women agree that they are very happy to have a job and that if it were not for the project they would be unemployed and starving.
“We like to work here, we didn’t like having to sit around doing nothing… we have children that we need to feed and now we can,” says Nombulelo Mpayipheli, another employee who has been with the project since it started in May 2008.
She says she used to come to the dump every day to collect metal and bottles to sell before joining the Masihlule Project.
“We find plastic, paper and cardboard and we get paid depending on how much we collect and how much it weighs,” says Gabangxana.
Masihlule Project
“All the people we have working here we got from the dump and we are going to need far more. We are trying to get these women out of their situation,” she says.
Thomson said that her main motivation is not recycling but helping people.
“Nosipho and I are for the people… when I saw people going through the rubbish on the side of the road I couldn’t handle it,” she said.
Thomson said that she wishes for Manona and other workers to eventually take over the project.
“My goal is for the people to it take over. It has to be someone that isn’t ignorant, they have got to understand the reasoning behind the project,” she says.
Muni threatens livelihood
The municipality have plans to enclose the dump and only let employees onto the site, however there are still many unemployed people who rummage through the rubbish every day to survive.
“This [the dump]is the people’s livelihood and how they get food every day,” says Thomson.
She is concerned that building a fence around the dump site will be catastrophic for those people that come to the dump in search of food and scrap metal to sell to scrap metal dealers.
She says these people work with the Masihlule Recycling Project employees and they help each other out while sorting through the dump.
“They will throw cardboard and plastic in our direction and we throw metal and tins in their direction,” she says.
Recycling in South Africa
This video explains how waste can be seen as a resource and explains how cities like Johannesburg have to encourage public transport to reduce air pollution.
