This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
TimesLIVE reports that hundreds of thousands of waste pickers and their families have been pushed to the brink of starvation under SA’s Covid-19 lockdown.
A report by the World Wide Fund for Nature SA, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Department of Environment, Forestry & Fisheries shows how the lockdown, which saw recycling facilities across the country shut in levels 4 and 5, placed “unprecedented” and “devastating” pressure on SA’s 215,000 waste collectors. Released last week, the report, compiled from a study conducted on the country’s waste sector between March and November 2020, looked at the impact of lockdown on waste collection in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The exclusion of waste collectors as essential services workers had far-reaching economic impacts on livelihoods. They were forced to go for weeks or more without their usual income, which meant no food for thousands of families. Even with the introduction of level 3 and the easing of lockdown, which saw reclaimers able to work again, they were not able to earn the same income they did before lockdown began. Africa Reclaimers Organisation (ARO) chair Eva Mokoena noted that before lockdown, a reclaimer could earn some R300 a day. “They are lucky if they earn R50 a day now. The effect of lockdown devastated thousands of reclaimers and their families. Thousands are facing starvation,” she pointed out.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Graeme Hosken at BusinessLive
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