MIHR insists on waste pickers’ rights 

Trisa Ray Sibanda 

Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights (MIHR)  Friday held a Bulawayo Waste Pickers conference at which it reiterated its call  on stakeholders to treat waste pickers fairly.

The conference themed, ‘Waste picking for economic freedom- reduce, reuse, recycle’  was attended by officials from Bulawayo City Council, the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises, Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission , Environmental Management Agency and civil society organisations.

Bulawayo waste pickers present at the meeting were drawn from Magwegwe, Iminyela, Lobengula, Mzilikazi, Old Pumula, Pelandaba West, Ngozi Mine, Cowdray Park, Pumula East and Gwanda.

MIHR  coordinator, Khumbulani Maphosa said  waste picking is an avenue for economic  freedom. He revealed that 60% of the waste picking fraternity are  women.

“Waste pickers, especially women face discrimination and revictimisation  which worsens their plight. We aim to empower them with economic literacy and enterprise development skills as well as link them with the local authority and government so that they can grow their waste picking industry,” said Maphosa.

PPEs worn by the waste pickers was to bring dignity to them. 

MIHR presented its position paper for 2023 to stakeholders in attendance.  The paper details the challenges faced by wastepickers and possible  solutions.

Some of the challenges facing wastepickers are lack of operation space as some of the waste pickers are tenants and the landlords do not allow them to keep waste at their premises, discrimination by neighbors, victimisation by council workers who confiscate their goods, iconsistence of by buyers.

According to MIHR, one of the major challenges bedevilling wastepickers is price manipulatation as buyers fix prices. They buy from the wastepickers at giveaway prices and resell the waste to companies at much higher profits.

Violence at Ngozi mine and gender based violence  issues were highlighted.

MIHR encourages wastepickers to  form cooperatives in their communities and register them.

 “We appeal to the council to allow us to pick waste for a living and to give us a space where we can store our waste not at our households because such waste tends to be a health bomb if it stays for a long time,” said one of the affected waste pickers who identified herself as Buhlebenkosi.

Bulawayo Mayor, Solomon Mguni encouraged wastepickers to formalise their operations and offered to help.

” As the council we are willing to work with you. You can come to us with your concerns and we will assist you. You must first come to us before going to  EMA because we work hand in hand and we want to work with you,” said Mguni. 

Mguni told waste pickers asked the wastepickers to keep their working areas clean by not scattering waste all over the place. 

“Waste is money. The only things so far that I know that is not useful are the ‘jiggies’ papers otherwise everything such as bread plastic papers, freezit plastics, milk papers and so forth can be reused and sent for recycling. Waste pickers are also useful to the community because they also clean the areas for free and they reduce litter, ” said Maphosa. 

The waste pickers were also encouraged to never be ashamed of their job enables them to provide for their families.