A Bhekisisa Centre for health journalism investigation has found that residents are getting sick and struggling to breathe because of the air quality around an illegal dump site in Kya Sand, north west of Johannesburg. Residents from informal settlements and gated...
Charles' story Charles is a 35 year old man who grew up in Soweto. He attended a local high school, passing matric except for his first language (isiZulu). He did not have any opportunity to study further because his family lacked the finances to support him. Charles...
The Earthly Touch Foundation builds classrooms out of eco-bricks for a local social outreach project in Diepsloot. With a team of experienced designers and builders, Earthly Touch Foundation has created or had donations of more than 60 000 eco-bricks, which are 2...
In leafy suburbs with regular waste removal, residents are generally happy with the services they are getting. But they are, however, suspicious about the intentions of the different waste reclaimers that frequent their neighbourhoods on rubbish collection days. The...
Saulsville is a township on the western extremes of the Tshwane metropolitan municipality. It was established under the apartheid government’s Group Areas Act to house Tsonga and Venda-speaking migrants with permits to work in the city of Pretoria. Saulsville’s black...
The stories offered here are an expression of how some people in the Karoo have come to think about the connections between rubbish, ill-health and their relationship to the land. It draws on local oral histories of land and health that were collected as part of a...
In 2019, the Eastern Cape Karoo was in the midst of a crippling drought — some said the worst they’d ever seen. The Nqwebo dam in Graaff Reinet had gone dry. More than 600 volunteers, young and old, had gathered to remove dead fish from its cracked floor. The clean-up...
One of the major needs in getting waste management systems right is the better inclusion and recognition of informal waste reclaimers. The thousands of individuals across the country who are waste reclaimers provide a major free service to municipalities and...
Themba is in his 30s and is a waste reclaimer living in Diepsloot. He travels through the settlement with his wooden cart and large bags, searching the dumpsites for cardboard, paper, plastic and metal. Glass bottles, he says, are not worth collecting “because you...