After 12 months of intensive cleaning and campaigning, Pikitup, along with a Jozi@Work beneficiary, Tedcor, celebrated how far residents of Zandspruit informal settlement have come.
Walking through the settlement, there are fewer waste dumps and more community gardens. One such area, across the community hall in Eureka Street, used to be a dumping site. It was cleaned at a cost of R80 000 by Pikitup and turned into a community garden.
READ: Garden tunnels to protect organic vegetables in Zandspruit
This came as a direct result of the clean-up initiative started in July last year as a Jozi@Work programme. Tedcor, a waste management company with a focus on informal settlements, was appointed to support the agent who in turn trained and aided three community cooperatives chosen by Pikitup.
Verona Ismail, managing director of Tedcor, said it trained cooperatives with business skills and methods in recycling and waste management, even prompting a small business that trades in recyclables.
A cooperative is a group of people from a community who form a company. There are a couple of directors running the company, but they also share labour and profits with all the employees.
With the Jozi@Work programme now restructured, Tedcor’s future in Zandspruit is based on a month-to-moth extension of their contract. But Pikitup managing director, Lungile Dhlamini said the initiative will continue.
The Jozi@Work structure has changed, allowing cooperatives to be contracted directly by the City, ultimately removing the middleman. Dhlamini said projects will be managed on a ward level.
MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Development Services, Nico de Jager said the project is part of Pikitup’s Community Upliftment Programme, which is essentially replacing the Jozi@Work structure.
“Zandspruit has approximately 24 900 housing units and the community is faced with a number of socio-economic challenges, one of which is extensive illegal dumping.”
The waste awareness campaign, he said, aims to encourage residents and informal traders to actively participate in recycling, and by doing so, reduce the tonnes of waste that goes to landfill sites.
“Today we are dealing with Pikitup. Tomorrow, Johannesburg Water and City Power will be here. We need to find a lasting solution to grey water running down the streets and communal taps dripping water.”
The MMC said the community also needs to take ownership of their surroundings and help look after it. The goal of this and other Pikitup initiatives is to have fewer clean-ups costing R80 000 and more community input into recycling and blowing the whistle on illegal dumping.
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