EDINBURGH â Tony, my occasional gardener, has a range of work streams to keep him going. Aside from trimming trees and plucking weeds, he serves as a handyman and occasional rubbish collector. It’s the latter that is probably his most lucrative work. He tells me that his greatest find was ÂŁ9,500 (about R180,000) in cash hidden in a tin in an attic he was clearing out for the widow of a Glasgow policeman: the woman shared the discovery with him 50%. Last week was more interesting than profitable: Tony picked up a pottery container, finding ashes and an RIP note, amongst the junk that he had been commissioned to cart away. South Africa’s garbage economy offers similar rewards and disappointments for those prepared to work through the waste that the rich and employed leave on the streets. As Bloomberg reports, many of the poorest are surviving by sorting and recycling waste rather than turning to crime. – Jackie CameronÂ
Living off garbage at the bottom of worldâs most unequal nation
âYou gotta go early to beat the traffic,â Hlatshwayo said as he lifted up a pizza box to shake out crusts and cigarette butts. âWhat people donât realise is that weâre subsidising the city and its residents. If we donât go to work, theyâd be short on trucks to collect all the garbage.â
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Hlatshwayo is one of an estimated 6,000 waste-pickers in Johannesburg who live off other peopleâs garbage in what the World Bank calls the most unequal country on earth. A legacy of apartheid, inequality remains so ingrained the ruling African National Congress hasnât been able to narrow the wealth gap since taking power 25 years ago. It remains one of the biggest challenges President Cyril Ramaphosa, a multi-millionaire, faces as he prepares to start a fresh term after the ANC won the May 8 general elections.
âWhat the ANC seems to be putting on the table is a mixed economic approach: creating a more business-friendly environment and being more open to foreign investors, while the other part is that the state does intervene by giving assistance when needed,â said Collette Schulz-Herzenberg, a political scientist at Stellenbosch University. âBut itâs had mixed results in that regard, and itâs really facing a big challenge.â
CEOs and top lawyers make as much as R20m ($1.4m) a year while the official minimum wage is R20 ($1.40) an hour. South Africa has the most millionaires and billionaires of any sub-Saharan African nation, and that number is expected to rise significantly in the next eight years, according to Mauritius-based AfrAsia Bank. At the same time, almost half of the population of 55 million is considered chronically poor.
While the ANC government has lifted more than 2 million people out of poverty, improved access to basic services and rolled out an impressive social-assistance program, South Africaâs high unemployment rate, currently at 27%, remains the single biggest obstacle to helping the poor, according to the World Bank.
âSouth Africa uses its fiscal instruments very effectively,â a spokesperson of the Washington-based lender said in emailed comments. âEven so, the level of inequality and poverty in South Africa after taxes and spending remains unacceptably high.â
The contrast between rich and poor is particularly striking in Cape Town, one of the worldâs top tourist destinations, and Johannesburg, a sprawling city built by migrants thatâs home to no less than 20 top-ranked golf courses and about 19,000 dollar millionaires, almost half the countryâs total number of high-income individuals.
Porsches and Maseratis are a common sight, as are opulent mansions. Residents ask referrals for cosmetic surgeons and dog acupuncturists on Facebook groups or flock to the latest French patisserie in luxury shopping malls – all testimony to $276bn in household wealth, more than the gross domestic product of Finland, that AfrAsia Bank says has accumulated here.
On the other side of the divide are people like Hlatshwayo, who was forced to quit his banking studies when his familyâs funds ran out and he left a job as a kitchen manager because working conditions were unhealthy.
Known locally as a trolley-pusher, Hlatshwayo, who speaks five languages, now sits at the very bottom of an army of black workers who fan out daily over the cityâs tree-lined neighbourhoods to service the rich. Shortly after his arrival, gardeners, dog-walkers, security guards and maids with white aprons emerge too, sweeping leaves or wheeling out the bins.
âThereâs a tremendous stigmatisation around being a reclaimer, but they are solving our waste problem and created their own jobs in the context of unemployment,â said University of the Witwatersrand academic Melanie Samson. âItâs an informal form of wealth redistribution thatâs a response to inadequate government policy. Many reclaimers choose this work as preferable to being domestic workers, construction workers or gardeners, where they lose control over their time and can be subjected to racism and abuse by employers.â
Waste-pickers are also key to the local economy: They collect as much as 80% of post-consumer packaging and paper material, making South Africaâs recycling rate equivalent to that of some Western European countries. Municipalities save up to R750m a year in landfill costs, Samson said, citing industry data.
While many wear balaclavas to avoid recognition, Hlatshwayo isnât ashamed of what he does. He calls it âa back-up plan.â Heâs part of an association thatâs registering all the waste-pickers in the city and helped organise a march this month to demand the municipality halt any plans to hire private recycling companies.
Yet heâs cynical about government, and didnât bother to vote.
âI actually put on my Facebook a few days back: âI think Iâm a socialistâ,â he said cheerfully. âThe people who died for our freedom, I donât think they would do it again. This freedom is only benefiting a very select few.â
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Once Hlatshwayo is back at the school where he lives with about 300 other waste-pickers, he and three colleagues start separating the recyclables. Lunch consists of strips of grilled meat while they quickly fill seven man-sized bags, some so heavy they require three people to lift them on a trolley. They donât sit down once. âTym is moneyâ is spray-painted on one of the school yardâs walls.
The four men then make their way to the nearest recycling centre, pushing and pulling their cargo through heavy traffic. Almost 30 others are already standing in line, waiting for a small gate to open before they can weigh their bags and throw the contents in containers. At last, by 6pm, itâs the turn of Hlatshwayo and his friends. They get R958, to be shared by four people, after a 14-hour day outdoors.
âMy mother loves the fact that Iâm not doing crime,â Hlatshwayo said. âYou never know where life is going to take you.â