The Waste Picker Revolution In this issue

groundWork is a non-profit environmental justice organization working primarily in 3 From the Smoke Stack South Africa, but increasingly in Southern Africa. groundWork seeks to improve the 5 Health, pollution and the climate crisis quality of life of vulnerable people in Southern Africa through assisting civil society to have a greater impact on 7 Green procurement workshop environmental governanace. groundWork places particular emphasis on assisting vulnerable and previously disadvantaged 9 Brand Audit 2019 people who are most affected by environmental injustices. groundWork’s current campaign areas 10 Bully-boy “SLAPP suits” on the rise are: Climate Justice and Energy, Coal, Waste and Environmental Health. groundWork is constituted as a trust. 11 A decade of successful struggle The Chairperson of the Board of Trustees is Joy Kistnasamy, lecturer in environmental health at the Durban 13 Kigali – clean vision University of Technology. The other trustees are: Farid Esack, Patrick Kulati, Richard Lyster, Sandile Ndawonde and 14 Clean Coal Jon White. 15 Air Quality and Health Literacy groundWork’s STAFF ARE: Director: Bobby Peek Deputy Director: Gill Addison Administrative Assistant: Bathoko Sibisi Waste Campaign Manager: Musa Chamane Coal Campaign Manager: Robby Mokgalaka Environmental Health Campaign Help us spread the word Manager: Rico Euripidou www.twitter.com/ Campaign Research and Technical www.facebook.com/ groundworksa Assistant: Niven Reddy groundWorkSA Global Green and Healthy Hospital (GGHH) Network Campaign Manager: AFFILIATIONS: Luqman Yesufu groundWork is affiliated to the following international Community Activist: Thomas Mnguni organizations: Media, Information and Publications Health Care Without Harm Campaign Manager: Tsepang Molefe International POPs Elimination Network Researcher: David Hallowes Basel Action Network Bookkeeper: Gill Waterworth Oilwatch International HOW TO CONTACT US: Global Anti-Incineration Alliance 6 Raven Street groundWork is the South African member of Friends of the Earth Pietermaritzburg International P O Box 2375, Pietermaritzburg, 3200 Tel: 033-342-5662 Fax: 033-342-5665 CREDITS: e-mail: team@groundWork. org. za Layout by Boutique Books Web: www. groundWork. org. za Printed by Digital Action

Cover: Delegates at the SAWPA general meeting. Credit: groundWork

- 2 - groundWork - Vol 21 No 3 - September 2019 -

From the Smoke Stack Photo by FoE

by groundWork Director, Bobby Peek

Dear Friends Africa, so that we could burn their imported waste. Thor then went on to solicit and be paid to burn It is amazing how slowly the wheels of justice toxic mercury wastes from the USA and various turn and how heavily it toils uphill. And, even as European countries. Along with the plant came we have forward momentum, we wait for the thousands of tons of spent catalyst contaminated inevitable backward roll. Someone in groundWork with mercury and other toxic organics such as must always be ready with a stone or a brick to arsenic. stop the backward roll. This was how I felt when, in early August, Minister Creecy made the bold At the time of the fire, more than 3 000 tons of decision on the Thor Chemicals debacle and said toxic waste was warehoused at the Cato Ridge the waste would be sent to Europe for treatment. plant. This is a fraction of the original amount of This was after groundWork had been advising such waste – estimated to be around 10 000 tons at a process for close to a decade. the time – that was the subject of a commission of inquiry chaired by Judge Denis Davis. This incident A few weeks later, this forward momentum was sharpened out attention on the Thor Chemicals halted abruptly when, on the 25th of August, a debacle and we have since been talking to fire broke out in one of the warehouses storing community people and ex-workers to understand mercurial toxic waste. I felt a hollowness in my gut their situation. There are many workers who are still when I learnt of the fire. So, it has all gone up in demanding worker justice as they were dismissed smoke and there will be no accountability – nor any or retrenched without any of the long-term medical protection from the fallout in the community and care that is needed in the case of mercury poisoning, along the local stream. I felt a sense of failure. which many have. It is going to be an interesting The Thor Chemical’s saga is part of the brutal few months. How is Minister Barbara Creecy going apartheid environmental racism that defined the to respond? Let’s wait and see. bleak living spaces of the majority of black South I cannot write a Smokestack these days without Africans. Just down the road from the groundWork mentioning the challenges around Eskom and its office, Thor Chemicals, in collusion with the inevitable collapse. It is common knowledge that apartheid government, imported thousands of Eskom has failed us. They are the butt of jokes tons of mercurial toxic waste to incinerate in at functions from the townships to suburbia. Cato Ridge, South Africa. This was after Thor Everyone has a laugh about Eskom, but it does hurt Chemicals closed their Margate (UK) plant when deep inside to see how this utility has been crippled the British government threatened legal action by politics and corruption. Those who suffer the because of over-exposure of workers to mercury most are the workers and the community people and noncompliance with British environmental dependent on Eskom. And there are many. Eskom standards. Thor Chemicals then exported their is refusing to acknowledge that their situation is non-compliant Margate incinerator plant to South spiralling out of control. Up to 13 units at various

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Eskom power stations are not in operation and Another movement that has emerged over the last are unlikely to ever come back on line. The story few years has been the health movement. This from Hendrina is that two units are down and the health movement is made up of chief executive remaining four units are scavenging for spare parts officers, doctors, nurses, engineers, architects, off the boilers that are not operating. Things are environmental health practitioners, support service desperate. An image of a disfigured leper comes to managers, procurement directors and waste mind when one witnesses the rot at Eskom. managers – all working with the aim to reduce the environmental footprint of the health care sector. While, Eskom loses grip on reality, we have We are planning for the first regional health care been pushing for a Just Transition to ensure that sector conference in Africa, to address how, as a the workers and the community are not left movement, they can put pressure on the decision desperate, as happened when the gold boom left makers to make health care institutions and workers town. A transition is happening now as we speak. honour their Hippocratic Oath. I am looking But it is not a just one. Eskom will not start with forward to this, as seeing how people coalesce decommissioning plans that are desperately needed around groundWork is one of the proud moments to ensure that local people transition to a stable life, for groundWorkers. that Eskom power stations do not become toxic waste sites, and that the mines are rehabilitated During September we also had our 20th Strategic – if they ever can be. We’d rather use the phrase Planning meeting and two issues jumped out detoxifying the land. There is not much time left. at me. We are getting big, and we have to work Most of the politicians and Eskom management hard at keeping the groundWork family together, prefer to bury their heads in the sand and hope that especially as we need to grow to meet the demands this all goes away. But like hell it will. It is here to on groundWork. So, strengthening the core stay. Hopefully, as it is our own waste we have to muscles of groundWork is important in this time of deal with, government will deal with it in a more growth. But as always there was fun to be had at committed way – but do not hold your breath. the strategic planning meeting and we took part in Last year in December we addressed a letter to the the international brand audit to identify and shame president to ask him about the plans for Hendrina, companies producing plastic materials that cannot as we’d heard talk of them closing in April. We be recycled. We did this audit as we looked over asked the president for his Just Transition plan. what is probably one of the best beaches in the province of KwaZulu-Natal and maybe even South We received silence in reply. Africa. But in all this negativity we still make positive inroads Finally, we are undertaking evaluation over the next in supporting movement building, in both the period. We look forward to this, and we hope that informal sector as well as in the formal sector. The if we call on you to share your reflections with the South African Waste Pickers Association (SAWPA) team you will be willing to share honest opinions. had their 2019 Biennial General Meeting, where We are happy to hear the good, the bad and the they reflected on the work over the past two years ugly about groundWork, for only then we can make and then democratically elected a new leadership. a better and stronger groundWork to challenge the This is indeed one of the highlights of my work – environmental injustices that still prevail today. assisting with SAPWA elections. They are always hotly contested and people always leave with the Till next time! feeling that they have shared solidarity, have learnt from each other and have given leadership to those who are keen to work as leaders.

- 4 - groundWork - Vol 21 No 3 - September 2019 - Lead

Health, pollution and the climate crisis

by Rico Euripidou

The time is now for the health sector to join the environmental and climate crisis!

For community people, air pollution has since the A 2017 report by Dr Michael Holland, titled 1990s been a framing for environmental justice, Health impacts of coal-fired power plants in South especially those living next to oil refineries, as in Africa, assessed the health impacts and associated south Durban, Sasolburg and Table View, Cape economic costs of emissions from Eskom’s coal- Town. Today, the World Health Organisation fired power stations. This report confirms that the (WHO), and our very own South African Public health impacts of coal-fired power plants in South Health Association (PHASA), and the Academy Africa create a substantial burden on human health, of Science of South Africa, have come out and leading to 2 239 equivalent attributable deaths publicly challenged poor governance that leads to annually, as well as 2 781 cases of bronchitis in air pollution. We are facing a crisis! adults, and 9 533 episodes in children, together with other related respiratory related diseases Air pollution has become a greater health risk than in adults and children each year. These negative cigarette smoking. Of the global population, 90% health impacts are likely to be most experienced by breathes polluted air. Air pollution has the same disadvantaged members of society. drivers as climate change – polluting industry and the burning of fossil fuels. This is widely considered Linked to this are the high costs associated with the greatest public health challenge of the 21st the health impacts of coal-fired power stations and century, threatening all aspects of society. The mines in South Africa. The study by Dr Holland WHO (World Health Organisation) has declared air finds that the total quantifiable economic cost of air pollution a “global public health emergency” and, pollution from coal-fired generation in South Africa along with climate change, the number one threat is in the region of R34.9 billion per year. This is to public health. Climate change and air pollution made up of impacts in terms of early death, chronic are directly interrelated! bronchitis, hospital admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and a variety of minor The Global Burden of Disease, an international conditions leading to restrictions on daily activity, programme that measures and assesses mortality including lost economic productivity. Dr Holland’s from major diseases, shows that for the African report excluded the significant impacts on air region the combined deaths from ambient air pollution from mining (such as coal dust), transport pollution and household air pollution amount to of coal and contamination of water approximately 1 million deaths per year (ambient air pollution 439 000 deaths, household air pollution Health professionals, especially those in the public 791 000 deaths). Ambient air is the air we breathe sphere, have a duty of care toward current and daily. Air pollution is known to cause premature future generations. Climate change will only deaths from lung cancer, ischaemic heart disease, exacerbate this man-made health epidemic, in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, strokes, and addition to its own health impacts. This is more than lower respiratory infection. This burden of disease an environmental problem. This is a public health and disability is estimated to cost us up to 3.8 % of crisis that requires the public health community Africa’s GDP. to be part of the solution – and it has the power

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to do so. The time is now for the health sector to often deliberately left to deteriorate through wilful join the environmental and climate crisis! Health neglect, and our environmental ministry plays must take oversight of air pollution for South Africa second fiddle to the politically connected within because the environmental ministry has failed the departments of minerals and energy along over the past fifteen years. This is according to a entrenched party patronage supply lines. recent assessment of the National Environmental Health workers are among the most trusted in Management Air Quality Act after fifteen years society of implementation, by weather and public health Finally, nurses, doctors and pharmacists consistently scientists. The implication is that the legislation is rank among the most trusted professions globally. failing to reduce air pollution in South Africa! However, it is not sufficient to treat people’s illnesses Air pollution and development without changing the conditions that make them Advocated by dirty industry and constrained sick in the first place. The environment is responsible environmental ministries, we often encounter for 23% of the global burden of diseases – this is the argument that environmental degradation from the World Health Organization and the call and pollution are inevitable consequences of to action is for the health sector to become more development in our region. Development and vested and articulate about the health impacts in pollution inevitably go hand in hand. However, in order to address the climate and global air pollution addressing existing environmental degradation and crisis. There is an urgent and immediate need for embarking on a Just Transition through reinvestment health voices to amplify health messages and join in renewable energy and providing better services the climate and health movement! and houses for people, we are offered a unique opportunity to address health and social inequality. This has also been shown to be a successful global strategy to help slow climate change and reduce the public health and economic risks of fossil fuel investments. In effect, a return on investment through measurable environmental improvements and reduced health costs. In contrast, a business as usual scenario will continue to place our way of life at risk, marginalize workers who are inevitably losing their coal sector jobs and exclude the poor, who can’t afford electricity at current prices anyway, from “development”. In South Africa, it’s not that we lack regulations on air pollution; it’s the political will and foresight to implement these policies that is severely constrained by those who hold the reins of power. Air quality monitoring and reporting is

- 6 - groundWork - Vol 21 No 3 - September 2019 - Global Green and Healthy Hospitals

Green procurement workshop

by Luqman Yesufu

Sustainable procurement policies and procedures can save costs and can contribute towards a healthier environment

Following the Africa regional inception workshop In addition, it is worth noting that we had for the Sustainable Health in Procurement Project women occupying positions of leadership at (SHiPP) in Africa, which was held in Zambia earlier the procurement space as we had more women this year, groundWork – in collaboration with one (fifteen) as compared to men (eleven) in this of the largest private healthcare institutions in both workshop. This was encouraging, and was duly the United Kingdom and South Africa, Netcare recognized as a step in the right direction. We had Limited – hosted its inaugural Green Procurement a set of ten presentations aimed at introducing Workshop at the Netcare Head Office in Sandton green procurement from a climate change angle as area, Johannesburg. It was a full-day workshop well as a health angle. Further emphasis was made aimed at equipping procurement officials as well as on the steps taken by each province to introduce other relevant stakeholders with the fundamental and cultivate the green procurement practices into knowledge to make procurement decisions that the tender process for health institutions. We also are based on consideration for human health and had some case studies shared by Bongani, Greys the environment. This workshop was attended by and George Hospitals on sustainable procurement procurement and health officials from four provinces practices incorporated in their hospitals. These case in the country: KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, studies were an inspiration and encouragement to Gauteng and Free State. The twenty-five delegates other health institutions present. were from multiple disciplines: procurement The representative of the National Focal Point directors, environmental health practitioners, person Godfrey Muneri was very impressed at the infection control nurses, finance managers, public sustainable projects that were being implemented health researchers, waste experts and civil society in hospitals. He said, “This is a very good initiative representatives all working in an interdisciplinary and will save the government lots of money if they fashion towards the set objectives of the workshop, can adopt and implement this at a national level”. which were to: He recommended that it would be great to have • Understand the green hospital and sustainable the National Department of Health as a driver for procurement projects sustainable procurement and said that this would pave the road for interactions with National treasury • Interrogate the need for green procurement in and Department of Trade and Industry, which are the health sector big government procurers and suppliers. • Understand the link between procurement and In the Western Cape, the key area of interest is health on disinfection and cleaning chemicals, identifying • Identify sustainable practices that can help save products that are safe for human health and costs in hospital the environment. This has propelled them to establish an interdisciplinary bid specification • Interpret and apply the total cost of ownership committee, consisting of infection control nurses, module

- Vol 21 No 3 - September 2019 - groundWork - 7 - Global Green and Healthy Hospitals

From left to right: Varshan Seetul (Netcare Limited); Malakia Mashiloane (Gauteng Health); Susan Wilburn (Health Care Without Harm); Santie Roy (Western Cape Health); James Mbulelo (Free State Health); Nelly Mwaka (UNDP, SA); Luqman Yesufu (groundWork) Credit: groundWork

environmental health practitioners, bid managers, Setting sustainability criteria in tenders, hosted procurement officials as well as doctors. They have by HCWH Europe on the 28th March 2019. so far identified 120 items in the tender to make the For Netcare Limited, Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) is a products safe for health and environment. They are big thing. PVC is widely used in medical devices in now currently reviewing recommended substitute Netcare Hospitals. It can be harmful to patients, the chemicals for the chemicals of concerns list. In environment and public health. Netcare limited has addition, they are looking at the procurement of the partnered with Adcock Ingram to help recycle its following, which form part of cleaning materials: PVC, converting it into school shoes for children. • Buying cleaning chemicals in bulk and then According to the then Netcare Procurement decanting and labelling them appropriately. Manager Varshan Seetul, “There are an estimated • Broom handles – wooden or plastic? Once 5 million children in South Africa who don’t have broken, plastic becomes waste. Therefore they school shoes. This project aims to meeting the are avoiding the plastic ones and buying the needs of these children and in the process reducing wooden ones. the rate of high absenteeism in schools. Netcare also recognizes the dangers of PVC and have • Soap, toilet paper and other consumable started to introduce alternatives that are safer for choices – They are going to try unbleached environment and health toilet paper to see if consumers can live with it because it’s a mind-set thing. Bleached toilet It was a very successful workshop and the aim papers contain hazardous chemicals, which is to aggregate this demand for sustainable they are trying to avoid. procurement and move the health sector industry, starting with our GGHH members, towards greater • The Bid Specifications Committee also attended sustainability, improved health outcomes and global the webinar titled Public procurement in health: environmental health.

- 8 - groundWork - Vol 21 No 3 - September 2019 - Waste

Brand Audit 2019

by Niven Reddy

at where we could push corporations to implement alternative delivery systems. We found the biggest polluter to be Tiger Brands, which produces a variety of South African household products from the essentials of rice, pasta and porridge to the treats of Beacon Sweets – almost all of which is packaged in plastic. We also encountered the usual suspects of Coca-Cola, Unilever and Nestle. Laundry detergents produced The top 10 polluting brands we ound in our brand audit. by Unilever appear to be particularly problematic, Credit: groundWork as the plastic is unbelievably thick and the product is packaged in multiple layers of foil and plastic. We also found that many products belonged to Last year, the #breakfreefromplastic movement household grocers like Spar and Woolworths. released a report showing the biggest global Much of this was food packaged in Styrofoam with polluters by various organizations deduced by plastic lids. Both grocery stores appear to the public conducting brand audits in addition to their regular as being green because they have introduced paper clean ups. The report showcased the results from bag alternatives, but they still continue to package 239 clean ups all around the world, with the top their food in toxic, single-use packaging. three global polluters being Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle. Unfortunately for the regular South African, these companies are not making it easy for us to be able The idea of a brand audit is to incorporate an to live day-to-day lives and still be conscious of the accountability element into a regular clean up, so environment. We need to push them to deliver these that producers of problematic plastic packaging do products in packaging-free refill systems and not in not push cleaning up and recycling as the solution the ridiculous refill packs that come in single-use to the problem while they continue to produce plastic. These brands pride themselves in delivering more and more plastic. The idea is to name and 100% recyclable packaging, but there is a serious shame the brands we find in order to get them to double standard in what they say their vision of rethink their delivery system and to show them the sustainability is and what they actually do as they design flaws of some of their single use packaging. continue to churn out products in non-recyclable This year we decided to do a brand audit as a packaging. It’s time to #breakfreefromplastic. team during our strategic planning and to look Unilever specifically at our own household waste. There proudly promotes were two reasons we chose to do this. Firstly, their 100% it was to show that people need not feel guilty recyclable bottle about purchasing some items in this packaging, for dishwashing because even environmental justice activists have liquid while producing the no option but to use these items as there are no refill product in alternative delivery systems being put in place by multilayered, the producing companies. Secondly, it was so that non-recyclable we could identify what the single-use items that packaging. we are consuming are, and look at ways to start Credit: phasing some of these out of our lives and look groundWork

- Vol 21 No 3 - September 2019 - groundWork - 9 - Coal

Bully-boy “SLAPP suits” on the rise

by Robby Mokgalaka

Mining corporates have devised a strategy Social activist Sheila Berry (from Global to discourage environmental groupings Environmental Trust) felt like she had been given from questioning their compliance with the a sharp slap across the face when she received a environmental laws. Their preferred strategy is warning letter from Petmin (Pty) Ltd, a mining called a Strategic Law Against Public Participation company in KwaZulu-Natal, warning her that she (SLAPP) suit. “SLAPP suit” is a term coined in the could be hauled in front of the High Court of South United States to describe the use of litigation to Africa for making “defamatory” statements about intimidate or strike fear into the hearts of social the coal mining company. and environmental activists – thereby stifling Johannesburg social worker John Clarke also public debate and scrutiny of mining and resource received a SLAPP suit in the form of letters from projects of powerful corporate interests. The main a different group of lawyers demanding over objective of the SLAPP suit is not to pursue and R7 million in damages for his allegedly defamatory attain justice, but to frustrate activists, burdening claims about the activities of an Australian company them with court proceedings and intimidating them that hopes to mine the ancestral land of the with court appearances in order to discourage them Amadiba community near Xolobeni on the Eastern from standing up against the corporates. Cape Wild Coast. In South Africa, the use of the SLAPP suit is growing Amadiba Crisis Committee member Mzamo Dlamini at an alarming rate, which is causing major concerns is also being sued by the Australians (for R2 million), about our democratic dispensation. Activists are along with three Cape Town environmental lawyers issued with court interdicts (some of them don’t Cormac Cullinan (R1 million), Tracey Davies and even know about their interdicts) preventing them Christine Reddell (R250 000 each) and West Coast from negotiating with the coal mines on issues activist Davine Cloete (R750 000). concerning their lives and livelihood while NGOs are lashed with legal charges for stating something On the 22nd of March 2016, Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” against the mines that the mines regard as Radebe was gunned down at his home at Mzamba defamatory remarks, requesting the court to order near the Wild Coast Sun casino resort by two men compensation that amounts to millions of Rands. wearing police uniforms. Radebe, a former member of uMkhonto we Sizwe and a powerful figure in his Ikwezi Coal Mining Company (Pty) Ltd, which community, was one of the most vocal opponents has its mining operation in the Dannhauser area of the proposed Australian mining venture at of Newcastle in the KwaZulu-Natal province, Xolobeni, and a plan to develop a new toll road instituted legal action against Shabalala, with through his community. More than three years charges of intimidation and common assault. later, no one has been arrested. The court proceedings have been going on since March of this year, with the case postponed for Our response further investigations. Shabalala was advised to In Cape Town, on the 28th of May 2019, the Centre get a lawyer to represent him, but he had to seek for Environmental Rights (CER), in solidarity with assistance from outside since he did not have the groundWork and other environmental NGOs, financial means to afford a lawyer. launched an advocacy campaign known as Asina Loyiko (We Have No Fear) against SLAPP suits, I hav been assisting Shabalala from the onset with to defend freedom of speech and to hold mining legal advice and strategic support to ensure that and resource corporations accountable for any he was released from custody. Womin also came unscrupulous behaviour aimed at suppressing on board, arranging for a lawyer to represent him people’s constitutional right to freedom of speech in court and organizing support for him during his and a healthy environment. court appearances.

- 10 - groundWork - Vol 21 No 3 - September 2019 - Waste

A decade of successful struggle

by Musa Chamane

SAWPA going from strength to strength

Waste Pickers across all provinces in South Africa were shared and we are motivated to go back to convened in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, from our towns and communities and continue our work the 19th to the 22nd of August for the 2019 Biennial towards providing solutions to the waste challenges General Meeting (BGM) of the South African that many South African municipalities are failing Waste Pickers Association. SAWPA celebrated and to address. reviewed a decade of work since the launch of the SAWPA is an organisation of more than 1100 organization in 2009 as a movement of and for all registered waste pickers in all nine provinces in waste pickers working in South Africa. This BGM South Africa. There are more members working 2019 was preceded by BGMs in 2015 and 2017 with SAWPA who are yet to be registered. and a gathering alongside the 2011 UN climate According to the Council of Scientific and Industrial summit in Durban, South Africa. Research (CSIR) there are up to 90 000 people The BGM was not only about the review of the who earn a livelihood through the informal waste work over the last two years, but also planning for sector. SAWPA is based on waste dump sites and the next two years. There were many victories that on streets in cities across the country, with all our

Provisional coordinators of SAWPA. Credit: groundWork

- Vol 21 No 3 - September 2019 - groundWork - 11 - Waste

members involved in collecting and selling waste from businesses and the community. In Wellington as a livelihood strategy. We divert and recycle and Paarl, in the Western Cape, we are now being materials such as organics, plastic, cardboard, paper supported by the Drakenstein Local Government and metals away from waste dumps, where good in their recycling initiatives. This was after the material becomes waste and results in increased waste pickers and community people represented greenhouse gas emissions and worsening impacts by Wellington Association against the Incinerator of climate change. (WAAI) and the Drakenstein Environmental Watch (DEW) successfully resisted the establishment of Speakers who attended the meeting included a municipal waste incinerator, which would have representatives from government, academia and destroyed our livelihoods. We are very encouraged technical institutions. The South African Local by the progress that our struggles has made. Government Association (SALGA) committed itself to working with waste pickers. We agreed Waste pickers provide the only form of solid that there should be a plan between SAWPA and waste collection in areas that are not serviced by SALGA as to how the latter will assist municipalities government, and their work enhances government in working with us. services in serviced areas, resulting in high recycling rates for the country. Waste pickers also contribute The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) to local economies, public health and safety and committed to work with SAWPA. They indicated environmental sustainability. While recognition for that they will shortly advertise mechanisms to their contributions is growing in some places, they indicate how the two parties can engage and how often face low social status, deplorable living and they can support the work of waste pickers. The working conditions, and get little support from local registration of waste pickers is the main priority government. Increasingly, they face challenges due for the DEA. They need to know how many waste to competition and unfair market prices by the pickers are working on landfills, waste dumps, private sector. streets and neighbourhoods, in towns and cities across the country. These numbers will assist in the planning process and the allocation of any resources These were the resolutions and outcomes of the for support. meeting: We agreed to: The guidelines for Waste Picker Integration into • Continue organising across the country; municipal waste management systems has been finalised and is to be adopted by the DEA later • Work to unite and speak with one voice this year. This document will be implemented at a behind SAWPA; local level by municipalities. Should governments • Continue with the formal registration of fail to do this, “we will meet on the streets” and members; that was the cry at the meeting. Municipalities such as Tshwane are proactive when it comes to waste • Organize relevant learning and supporting picker integration. They briefly came to the meeting opportunities for waste pickers; and invited waste pickers to be part of the planning • Fight for recognition of waste pickers and meeting with them about integration. That meeting local cooperatives by local and district is scheduled to take place in October. The aim is to municipalities; outline a clear path on how both parties can work together. • Challenge municipalities to work with us; Amongst the issues that we discussed were waste • Continue organizing toward Zero Waste picker projects on the ground in various places, societies; and including new areas such as Durban, KwaZulu- • Keep South Africa free from municipal waste Natal, where the Metro has built a recycling centre incinerators and other such false solutions to for waste pickers to operate from. In Vereeniging, the waste management challenges we face Gauteng, we have a new project operated by in South Africa. Majakathatha Cooperative, which collects waste

- 12 - groundWork - Vol 21 No 3 - September 2019 - Waste

Kigali – clean vision

by Nkanyiso Mthombeni

Nothing inspired me to write this article more than aiming at 100% renewable energy by 2020, which the heaven-like cleanliness I witnessed in Kigali is attainable if they keep up their current pace. I Rwanda. I’m saying heaven class because it’s spotted solar PVs on the roof of Onomo Hotel in beyond world class, Nothing in this country ever Rwanda which made me conclude that there is a came across as clean as Kigali, a city in Rwanda. As total green revolution in a super green city. By my we drove from the Kigali international airport, past deduction Rwanda is not just clean, but it is the University of Kigali until we reached Onomo Hotel, vision of the green future South Africa would like where we picked up some of our colleagues and to emulate in the near future. Food Sovereignty headed to Gisenyi Serena Lake Kivu hotel, which is is also visible in the streets and roads of Rwanda, a four-hour drive from Kigali International – I never as you see people hauling bucketsful of potatoes, spotted even a piece of cotton wool not to mention cabbage, rice and bananas. This is very interesting paper or plastic on the ground. because they own the means of food production. I was ashamed of my own country, South Africa, Our half-baked commitment to Climate Change is which is littered with all sorts of rejects. Indeed, questionable as far as our policy-makers position our national symbol is pollution. South Africa is is concerned. I see Kenya, sometimes pronounced as world class, but I posed Rwanda and other African a strong questions to myself: What’s world class countries shaming us in about my country? Our cities, as a result of the their commitment to a mining legacy, are in a state of collapse. Jo’burg is greener future, while a sinkhole in the making. Mpumalanga Highveld our government is so polluted that breathing air there is equivalent continues to talk to smoking many packets of cigarette a day. The left and walk water in the Vaal River is so contaminated that right. in places it is no longer fit even for electricity Let’s Go generation. There are more than 270 mine dumps Green! along the Witswatersrand basin containing radio- active waste that will remain a risk for hundreds of thousands of years to come. In Durban, there are chemical and petro-chemical companies that have exploded on a regular basis and industry emissions result in serious health problems and do great harm to the environment. As a result of climate change, Cape Town was close to becoming the first city in the world to run dry – their Day Zero. Is this the remarkable and world-class country we all dream of? Our fossil fuel products like plastics are littered everywhere in the streets of South Africa, yet banning plastic usage hasn’t been an important factor for our policymakers. In East African countries like Kenya and Rwanda, however, plastic is banned, which makes these countries ultra-clean and they shimmer in pristine newness. Kenya is leading the pack in renewable energy, currently enjoying 75% of clean energy connected to the grid and

- Vol 21 No 3 - September 2019 - groundWork - 13 - Greenfly

Clean Coal

by Greenfly

Gwede Mantashe is NOT a coal fundamentalist. We Not only that, but electricity must be cheaper so know this because he told us so. More than once. that big industry can perform. “I am not a coal fundamentalist.” The Integrated So there we have it. Pure magic. Zero emissions Resource Plan (the electricity plan) is about to be from unspecified clean coal technologies at reduced released – hold your breath everybody – and there’s cost. plenty of room for wind and solar. And for coal and nukes. And for whatever. So there’s no need for a Pity the Eskom coal-brothers didn’t have the magic. war between technologies. There’s enough for all, Never mind the carbon. Zero sulphur costs way too he told the Windaba summit. What we need is a much. Well, not zero exactly. What costs too much Just Transition – to clean coal. is complying with the law on sulphur emissions. And the law is a long way from zero. But government Clean coal. Two years ago, across the Indian Ocean, knows what to do about that. They’ll make the law coal-brother Scott Morrison took a lump of coal double the long way from zero. into the Australian parliament. “This is a lump of coal,” he said. Uh-duh. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. There is of course a big difference between clean As if everyone was stampeding the exit. No-one carbon and clean sulphur technologies. For a was. start, sulphur scrubbers actually exist. Capturing carbon is another thing. There are two coal power Now that was clean coal. Not a smudge of the black stations in the world with carbon capture plants. stuff appeared on his immaculate white double cuff The plant at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam in Canada shirt with gold cuff links. A glossy black lump of captures CO from one of four units. It was over- coal painted over with lacquer. Clean coal. The real 2 budget, over-time and doesn’t work very well. It deal courtesy of the Minerals Council of Australia. has captured about half the CO2 emitted from that Clean coal. Now the minister’s adviser, coal-brother unit and consumed about a third of the energy Sello Helepi, tells us, “Coal is not a dark demon of produced by it. devastation”. Really? Maybe that was the headline The CO is then sold for ‘enhanced oil recovery’ writer. Whatever. Don’t be afraid. South Africa has 2 (EOR) to a neighbouring oil company. Otherwise, 53 billion tons of coal reserves. He doesn’t say so, says SaskPower, the plant would not be economic. but that’s 100 billion tons of CO – so South Africa 2 EOR means the CO is pumped into an oil well to could blow the world’s carbon budget with very 2 restore the pressure underground. About half the little help from our coal-brothers. CO2 comes back up with the oil. And there’s more But don’t worry. “Clean coal technologies will result oil coming up. in virtually zero carbon emissions.” The other plant is at the Parish power station in Back to Gwede, this time at the Jo’burg Indaba: “In Texas. The story is similar. The plant captures a bit

the IRP that we will be submitting to Cabinet, we more than a third of the CO2 produced by one of have made provision for coal with a rider that coal eight units. And they built an extra gas-fired power must invest in clean coal technologies.” unit just to run the carbon capture plant. They pipe the CO to an oil well about 130 kilometres away Does that mean all future coal plants must be zero 2 and production at the well has increased from 300 carbon emissions? And zero sulphur emissions? barrels a day to 4 000. Not quite zero then. And zero particulate emissions? Way to go Gwede.

- 14 - groundWork - Vol 21 No 3 - September 2019 - Media and Information

Air Quality and Health Literacy

by Tsepang Molefe

More people have come to realize that chugging Lastly: Action and Responsibility – how this engines, smoking chimneys and burning waste information can be utilized to bring about dumps go deeper than just the visibility of thick meaningful change. ambient smog. The World Health Organization In August, groundWork hosted a session on air has labelled air pollution a “global public health monitoring in Mpumalanga. Community activists emergency”. According to the WHO, 91% of the from different organizations around Emalahleni world’s population, or about seven billion people, and the Vaal attended the two-day session. Both breathe unhealthy air, which cuts short 7 million the Vaal and eMalahleni were declared high priority lives each year. Poor outdoor air quality alone areas by government due to the toxic levels of air causes 4.2 million deaths, more than deaths from pollution and environmental degradation. malaria, tuberculosis and HIV and AIDS combined At the centre of the local mess are Eskom, Sasol The introduction of the Air Pollution and Health and a government that is failing to hold them to Literacy programme in grassroot communities account. Mpumalanga accounts for some 83% of affected by air pollution is a critical step towards South Africa’s coal production. Eskom has twelve creating basic awareness about environmental coal-fired power plants in the area. Sasol’s coal-to- rights. This has the potential to lead to more liquids plant in Secunda and the NatRef oil refinery pressure on authority being applied, leading to also emit pollutants. Sasol and Eskom are both major reduction in air pollution, and could also lead to the sources of air pollution and are guilty of exposing acceleration of climate action and improvement of citizens to significant health risks, including children human health. playing outdoors. The purpose of the programme is to assist affected There are a number of air monitoring tools that communities, community activists and organizations were introduced to community activists to use for with the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to daily monitoring of the ambient air in their areas. address issues of air quality and health in order to This picks up from what is known as the Bucket bring change and awareness in their communities. Brigade, but the bucket has been replaced by The main elements of the programme involve: modern versions of air monitoring devices. The One: Facilitation and Presentation skills to reach the primary goal is to encourage a systematic, long- communities you work with. term assessment of pollutant levels by measuring the quantity and types of certain pollutants in the Two: Basic Air Pollution Science, which includes air surrounding. This will also assist communities in monitoring and health impacts. identifying pollution hot-spots in their areas. Three: Portfolio of Evidence, which involves the The “Bucket Brigade” is a method of air sampling gathering and sharing of vital information to that groundWork introduced many years ago to highlight the relationship between air quality and drive air quality monitoring in communities living health. in various pollution hotspots around South Africa. The system uses a simple method to grab air samples. The kit consists of a bucket, bicycle pump

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and specialized bags. This community monitoring more scientific factual approach. The aim is that capacity empowers communities to act on air concrete and realistic plans to improve air quality pollution, forcing both government and private are not only drafted, but implemented. Bringing companies to better monitor air quality and national solutions for cleaner air is among the accelerated government to adopt new legislation. climate actions proposed to strengthen economies and create jobs, while preserving natural habitats The air quality monitoring will be backed by the and biodiversity and protecting our environment Umoya Impilo campaign, which is aimed to be an

need to become mainstream agenda items. Climate awareness vehicle for communities. It stems from change itself introduces yet another element of the logical belief that people need to be more health and environmental impacts, from increases conscious of their environmental surroundings, and in heat waves and flooding, challenges to sanitation to be alert to how corporates operating in their and food and water security, to rises in diseases. areas dispose of or manage their waste outputs, One cannot stress the importance of awareness how such externalities are managed and how the about the impacts of air pollution on our health mismanagement thereof affects their well-being. and climate. The fight against air pollution is not They must always play guard to their constitutional just a battle against capitalism, corporate power, or right to an environment that is not harmful to to protect the most vulnerable in our society. It is a their health or well-being. Air monitoring and fight for life itself. Umoya Impilo will serve as backers to each other, one being evidence based and the other taking a

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