Living off vegetables from a dump site

Myeza started waste picking from the dump site at the age of 20. She has never had any other work.

Last week, waste pickers protested against plans to prevent them from accessing the site.

Myeza lives with her three sisters. One sister sometimes gets piece work, but mostly the family survives from the food, especially vegetables, she finds at the dump site every day. The only days she doesn’t go to the dump site is when she is sick or when it rains.

On her way to the site, she meets other women from nearby Cinderella Park, who also go waste picking on a daily basis.

“I’m always lucky with vegetables such as onions, green peppers, carrots and potatoes. For me those are the best days, because I know I won’t go to bed hungry. Once I get that, I go home smiling because I know we have the best supper,” says Myeza.

She started waste picking after watching a group of women in the early hours of the morning passing her house. “I would asked around and people would tell me that the women were travelling to pick up items from the dump site.

“I would see these women coming back in the afternoon, carrying plastic bags full of different items. At the time, I didn’t know I would end up being one of them.

“Some of them are my neighbours and I know that their children survive from food from the dump site or items that their parents have sold,” says Myeza. Most of the waste pickers are men.

Apart from health hazards and the risk of injury from sharp objects, there are other dangers on the site, says Myeza.

“Sometimes people get knocked by the [municipal] tractor while they are picking up items. The tractor is there to move items together so that they are not scattered on the ground.

“Theft is also a problem. Waste pickers steal things from one another. Some wear their proper clothes and when they arrive at the site they wear torn clothes. Some waste pickers use that opportunity to steal other people’s clothes,” she said.

She arrives at the site at 7am.

“The [dump] trucks usually arrive around 8am. By that time hundreds of people are already at the site. These are people from all the townships in Pietermaritzburg and surrounding areas. Some people travel by taxi, some gather at night.”

Sometimes the waste pickers fight over food, she says. “You see pregnant women pushing one another so that they take something home.”

“I don’t eat breakfast; I always eat my breakfast on the site. I pick up fruits from the dump site and have them as breakfast. I always make sure that I eat fruits that look clean. By 12pm, I leave the site and go back home,” she says.

She says like any other job there are good days and bad days. On bad days she has no food to take home.

“If I don’t get anything I pick up any iron or steel items that are not heavy. I take those and sell them to companies that buy metal items. I don’t get more than R30, but at least that helps me to buy bread for my family.

“Good days are when I go home with a bag full of vegetables for supper. At least I know I have a vegetable rack full of vegetables.”

Hundreds of people survive from waste picking at the New England Landfill dump site in Pietermaritzburg. Photo by Ntombi Mbomvu.