Byo waste buyer association formed

TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO 

Female waste pickers at the City of Bulawayo ‘s biggest squatter camp, Ngozi Mine, have formed an association as they move to empower themselves and speak with one voice.

Ngozi Mine is situated at a dumpsite between the suburbs of Cowdray Park and Richmond.

Waste picking and recycling has become big business for many women in Bulawayo.

The women, under the Waste Buyers Association banner, are working Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights (MIHR) .

MIHR coordinator Khumbulani Maphosa said the two parties were working together to empower female waste pickers in the city in terms of their rights to deal with gender based violence and also to negotiate for better pricing of the waste they are picking.

“This is in a bid to ensure that the enterprise is gender responsive and human rights based. So in the discussions with the female pickers we realised that there is a need to engage the waste pickers,” Maphosa said.

He added: “The idea of the association is that  it becomes a bridge. It enhances the rights of women waste pickers and also women waste buyers. Because buyers are complaining that for instance when they go to sell in Harare they spend three days, the females sleep in the open because there is no accommodation and it takes time to be attended to.”