South Africa’s informal settlements often have little or no waste removal services. This is in large part because of the history of apartheid spatial planning, but also because of rapid urbanisation, poor planning, a lack of funds and capacity in municipalities, and the inability of garbage trucks to reach some areas in informal settlements. Some informal settlements get no services at all because they are not recognised.
Because many informal areas are not serviced, and many formal areas are under-serviced because of back-yarding and high-density, residents often do not have access to wheelie bins. Instead, they must buy plastic bags and leave them outside their homes for collection. Plastic bags not only cost money, but left outside, they can also be torn up by dogs and attract rodents and bad smells.
To add to this, informal settlements often become dumping grounds for waste from other places.
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...
In Pearston, a small town between Graaff Reinet and Somerset East where residents live off groundwater, the river is dry but pouring with rubbish. For decades, Pearston’s riverbed has separated its black township, Khanyisa, from its town centre. “When I grew up here...