By Community Podium
Waste pickers in Bulawayo expect the newly elected councillors for Bulawayo to champion their cause and give them recognition.
In an interview, Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights (MIHR) director Khumbulani Maphosa said waste pickers have long yearned for acceptance which the previous leadership did not provide.
“Waste pickers need to be recognised as contributors to waste management in the city. The cat-and-mouse game between the two stakeholders must stop because city council officers have a culture of confiscating waste from these pickers leaving them with nothing yet they are trying to make a living.
City by-laws must be reviewed in line with the empowerment of waste pickers. They are at the lowest level of life and are surrounded by several grievances that include lack of spaces to store their products which ends up creating conflicts with their landlords.”
Continuing, Maphosa said waste pickers deserve incentives for cleaning up the city. He believes they do more than the paid cleaners of the local authority.
Turning to the Ngozi Mine recurring fires Maphosa called for stakeholder engagement. A lot of waste-picking activities are done at Ngozi Mine.
“I think it is best for the local authority to engage settlers at Ngozi mine to find answers on why there are recurring fires instead of blaming the settlers. These fires cause damage to the environment and climate as a whole.”
