Chronicle Editor
Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, Senior Health Reporter
WOMEN who pick waste for recycling at Bulawayo’s Richmond dumpsite popularly known as Ngozi Mine, have bemoaned alarming levels of violence they suffer while collecting waste, and urged responsible authorities to create a safe and conducive working environment.
Waste-pickers are critical players in the management and waste circular economies and in Bulawayo, as they have helped clear tonnes of waste which is recycled.
The practice also helps a number of unemployed residents fend for their families.
In a statement after their conference in Bulawayo yesterday, the Matabeleland Institute of Human Rights coordinator who was facilitating Mr Khumbulani Maphosa said female waste pickers have been exposed to a form of violence perpetrated by their male counterparts and Bulawayo City Council (BCC) workers.
“For female waste-pickers operating at Ngozi Mine dumpsite, physical, verbal, emotional gender-based violence is the order of the day, mostly from male waste pickers. In some cases, boys waylay trucks carrying waste from the main road, ride the truck, and prevent other people from collecting waste from the same trucks,” she said.
“Elderly women are regularly insulted and told to go and practice witchcraft in the rural areas. Some female waste pickers have been robbed of their money and even their waste pickings.”
Mr Maphosa said despite the abuse, operating hours also made it difficult for female waste pickers to make most of the business as their male counterparts are likely to take advantage of trucks that come at night to dump waste.
“The dumpsite also has no operating hours making it accessible all any time of the day of the week. Pickers at Ngozi mine lamented that there are no control measures which were there in the early 2000s when the local authority was strict in terms of picking times,” he said.
“This is now worsened by the fact that there are some trucks delivering waste even during the night. Consequently, this has coerced some waste-pickers especially males to organise picking night vigils.”
Mr Maphosa said women cannot join the overnight picking vigils as they risk being raped and their waste being stolen at night.
Waste pickers operating from the city centre, low and high-density suburbs, complained of rampant harassment by BCC workers and the contracted truckers’ workers.
@thamamoe
Online Reporter