Masixole - Working in Waste

By PHILIP NYALUNGU AKA MZAMANI

I found Masixole back at the dumpsite on Monday where he once again told me he's not on good terms with his grandma and that they had a fight soon after I left their place this past Friday. I asked him if I could take him to the hospital the next day and he agreed and said that I should also go get his ID and the hospital card from his grandma in Vukani Location. When I went to fetch him on Tuesday morning I found two police vans at the dump.

At the hospital they told Masixole he must start at Day Care (Clinic). So, we went to Day Care in town near the traffic circle on Cobden Street. There they took his blood, gave him Flucloxacillin, Ibuprofen and Napamol pills. They also gave him a small plastic container to cough into and he was told to bring the specimen the coming Thursday when going to fetch his HIV/AIDS treatment.

He didn’t want to go back home. Instead he wanted to go back to the dumpsite.

When we got there I found a group of young men playing chess and I was impressed. I have been thinking that if activities like these can be supported and strengthened to help develop these young people, and how initiatives like these can contribute towards improving Grahamstown’s economy.

Their development is important, taking into consideration that these people are the future of this town, this province, our country and the world.

I went to the site again today and I saw young people burning copper insulation to extract the copper wire to sell to the nearby scrapyard. I also took a picture of one month of recyclable materials extracted and brought by the waste pickers to the scrapyard.

Waste pickers work so hard for many years, but when they get sick, hungry or need help, there's no structural support and their souls perish as if they never had a single breath to this land - like many thrown away babies - let alone those picked by waste pickers' bare hands.