Gert Brits wakes up every morning to collect and sort the items people consider to be a nuisance in their homes. Brits collects our rubbish.
While his son was unemployed, they began collecting recyclable items to earn some extra money for the household.
Later his son found a job elsewhere, which left 69-year-old Brits to run the business by himself – the operative word being business. Brits owns a car and trailer and refers to the people he collects recyclables from as contracts.
He says he has many contracts within the Randfontein area as well as places as far as Alberton.
Brits also works with Alfred, a man he met years back while out collecting recyclables. Brits says the reason a man of his age is out on the streets doing vuilwerk (dirty work) as he so aptly puts it, is that the pension he receives is not enough to sustain his household.
Alfred adds that he too receives a pension but as in the case of Brits, it is simply not sufficient.
When asked if he had experienced any problems with fellow ‘garbage men’ regarding stealing, he replied that he has not had any such incidents. However, he does allude to fighting among ‘garbage men’ at places where one can find little nuggets of garbage but those, he says, are only the men who need money to drink.
Brits states that on average he makes R100 a day for a full day’s work, notwithstanding he and Alfred being elderly men.
