Residents of Mooiplaas and Spruit informal settlements in Centurion, north of Johannesburg, came out in numbers to collect food hampers on Wednesday, forming a queue 3km long.
They perform one of SA's most important services - collecting recyclables that would otherwise swell the country's rubbish dumps and burden municipal trash collection - but the coronavirus lockdown has left thousands of waste pickers without any way to make a living. While municipal refuse removers were classified as essential workers, waste pickers were excluded from the list.
Business leader Smiley Essa said while thousands of people were guaranteed to have a meal after the donations, more was required.Residents of Mooiplaas informal settlement outside Centurion collect food hampers on Wednesday.The donors expressed gratitude to the Gauteng social development department, the city of Tshwane and law enforcers who approved the distribution, in line with a new directive that distribution should be co-ordinated and approved.
Scores of police, soldiers and metro police officers have been in attendance since the start of the distribution. Smuggling between South Africa and Zimbabwe is rife in Musina, Limpopo. Zimbabweans, facing a dire food security situation, can no longer buy food in the town as the coronavirus pandemic has led to the closure of the border to South Africa. Despite the erection of a R37 million fence, which was completed on April 20 2020, food is still regularly being smuggled into Zimbabwe.
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