A group of poor Butterworth residents risk losing their livelihoods after the Amathole District Municipality (ADM) issued a notice to evict them from their workplace.
About 40 residents currently earn R700 a month and work from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday separating recyclable material such as cans, bottles, cardboard, plastic and papers from mountains of waste at the regional solid waste dump.
The site was established in 2010 to serve the waste disposal needs of Mnquma and Mbhashe local municipalities. Refuse is collected from Butterworth, Dutywa, Willowvale, Centane and Ngqamakwe.
However, the ADM is not satisfied with work done by the residents and has now written to them asking them to vacate the site before or on March 31 2016.
Reasons, outlined by the municipality in the eviction notice seen by the Saturday Dispatch, include claims that the recyclers employed through a section 21 company, Vusanani Recycling Initiative, have been struggling to operate the centre in an efficient manner.
Recyclers say their worst fears of being jobless in the face of growing poverty have been realised.
Nomuzi Booi, a 44-year-old recycler, said: “I came to work here after I lost my job three years ago. This job is important to me because we do not sleep without having eaten.
“This is all we have and it is better than waking up and basking in the sun without a job. We make a living by this recycling.”
With her remuneration, Booi looks after her mother, four children and nephew.
Another recycler, 57-year-old Nomapasi Tsita, said she and her 29-year-old daughter put in extra hours at the site to put food on the table. “The money helps a lot. I cannot accept this eviction notice because it is going to make my family and I hungry.”
ADM said the memorandum of understanding it had earlier signed with Vusanani had now been breached and as a result the municipality has decided not to renew a contract with the company.
In its notice to evict, ADM said: “Vusanani is not operating the site according to the memorandum of understanding. Monthly submission of waste records including amount recycled, sales and how Vusanani distribute the revenue from the sales are not submitted to ADM. There has been a high turnover of waste sorters at the recycling centre due to non-payment by Vusanani.
“You are therefore requested to collect your belongings and vacate the site on or before 31 March 2016.”
Vusanani director Monde Ntlahla said ADM had failed them by not supporting them with funding and equipment to do the job.
He said the last time municipal officials were on site was in 2014.
“We cannot get funding, we are struggling to meet our objectives because the municipality keeps on renewing our contract by two years and no one is going to fund a two-year project – at least they must give us five years and see what happens,” Ntlahla said.