GroundUp reports that in an urgent application, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has asked the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to declare the lockdown directive which requires reclaimers to apply to municipalities for a work permit unconstitutional and invalid.
Between 60,000 and 90,000 reclaimers - people who collect and sell recyclable material - are responsible for collecting 80% to 90% of used packaging and paper recycled in SA. Under Level 5 lockdown regulations, reclaimers were not classified as an essential service so they were prohibited from working. LHR brought an urgent application to the court to have them classified as an essential service, but the application was dismissed. The government then announced on 29 April that reclaimers would be allowed to work under Level 4 lockdown regulations, but that they would need to apply to municipalities for a work permit - a law that did not exist before the lockdown. In order to get a permit, all South African informal reclaimers must provide municipalities with an ID or passport. Foreign national reclaimers must have a passport and work permit, an asylum seekers permit or a formal written recognition for refugee status. But the LHR argues that proof of identity “is a means of exclusion when one considers that some of the applicants are foreign nationals who have either lost their proof of identity or have none.” The LHR has asked the court to declare the permit directive unconstitutional and set it aside and to declare that all reclaimers in the Tshwane Municipality be allowed to operate without a permit.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Zoë Postman at News24
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