An abandoned gold mine in Johannesburg, South Africa. Mark Lewis/Wake Up, This Is Joburg March 6, 2023 The real Johannesburg: 6 powerful photos from a gritty new book on the city Tanya Zack, University of the Witwatersrand From butchers to hawkers, and shelters to miners, this book reveals the informal economy and texture of the city.
An unemployed man in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, collects trash for resale before South Africa went into a Covid-19 lockdown. EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook April 1, 2020 South Africa’s response to COVID-19 worsens the plight of waste reclaimers Melanie Samson, University of the Witwatersrand The clock is ticking: in the absence of government support, not being able to work means waste reclaimers don’t have money to buy food.
Waste pickers are increasingly taking action to oppose policies that exclude them from their source of livelihood. Swampa (South African Waste Pickers Association) March 1, 2020 How waste pickers in the global South are being sidelined by new policies Federico Demaria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Marcos Todt, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS) Waste, once freely available to the poor, is being appropriated for business purposes.