The Star reports that a health hazard is looming in Soweto after Pikitup stopped its refuse-collection services in protest against the growing number of attacks on its workers in the township.  

This could see up to 2.5 tons of rotting refuse a week piling up in some suburbs of Soweto and has sparked fears not only of a health hazard, but of rat infestations and fires.  The Star report identifies the affected suburbs.  Collection of refuse has been disrupted across the city over the past few months, following the termination by the DA-led administration last year of the previous Jozi@Work project, initiated by the former ANC-led administration as a job-creation project that saw workers employed on three-monthly contracts.  After meetings with the unions in April, the City hired 1,400 of the total 3,000 former employees on a permanent basis, with their salaries increasing from R2,200 to R6,000 per month.  The protesters are the workers who were not given jobs.  The situation is so bad that Joburg metro police department (JMPD) officers have to accompany refuse removal trucks to some suburbs.  Over the past few days, the protesters have not only been picketing outside Pikitup’s depots, but also stoning and burning the utility’s trucks.  Pikitup MD Lungile Dhlamini advised the managers at the affected depots on Monday that it would be irresponsible to allow their staff members to work under such conditions, as their safety could not be guaranteed until a political solution was found.

• Read this report by Anna Cox in full at The Star

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