The latest edition of the DSI/NRF/CSIR Chair in Waste and Society webinar series is entitled "Waste pickers, what is their crime? Constitutional safeguards".
Presenter: Dr Nonhlanhla Ngcobo
Host: Lizette Grobler
Date: Thursday, 19 August 2021
Time: 12h00
Link: https://uwc.zoom.us/j/93227093690
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Nonhlanhla Ngcobo (BA Law, LLB, LLM) is a Doctor of Philosophy in Laws with Law and Development (PhD) candidate and researcher for the South African Research Chair in Cities, Law and Environmental Sustainability (CLES). Her research focuses on party politics and their influence on environmental governance in the local government sphere in South Africa. Some of her research interests include informality, particularly the informal economy for local economic development as a sector-specific issue of local government.
Nonhlanhla has also formed part of the Township Economic Development Task Team, a research-intense project on the Extent to which the Current Municipal Legal Framework Enables and/or Impedes the Development of Township Economies headed by CLES and South African Cities Network (SACN). Some of the presentations given by her include a guest presentation on Informality in the Development and Local Government Law lecture as well as a presentation on Environmental Protection and the Growth of South Africa’s Informal Economy: Constitutional Imperatives which was awarded second place for best presentation at the Environmental Law Association National Student Conference, 2019. She also presented at the first African Environmental Law Conference organised by the Environmental Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Cologne, Germany in May 2021. Her presentation looked at "Protecting the environment and the waste picking sector: Assessing municipal bylaws against the dictates of the Constitution".
ABSTRACT
When the country went into lockdown at midnight on 26 March 2020, the often-forgotten sector of the informal economy would suffer the brunt. Firstly, waste pickers were immediately deprived of access to landfills (as these were locked) and the streets of South Africa's cities and towns. This meant that those waste pickers who slept in landfills were effectively left homeless. Secondly, the government put in place a R500 million government fund aimed at cushioning the losses of small businesses during the outbreak. However, waste pickers were excluded from benefiting from this fund. Thirdly, the government refused to declare waste picking to be an essential service. This decision was later affirmed in the Pretoria High Court, effectively leaving waste pickers with no source of income. Thus, the COVID-19 lockdown has left waste pickers with many challenges, more especially the possibility of a waste picker facing imprisonment for the job they perform. The objective of this presentation is to argue that the matrix of rights of waste pickers and the duties of local government enshrined in the Constitution should be used by municipalities to inform their reaction towards the participants of the waste picking sector.
Presenter: Dr Nonhlanhla Ngcobo
Host: Lizette Grobler
Date: Thursday, 19 August 2021
Time: 12h00
Link: https://uwc.zoom.us/j/93227093690
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Nonhlanhla Ngcobo (BA Law, LLB, LLM) is a Doctor of Philosophy in Laws with Law and Development (PhD) candidate and researcher for the South African Research Chair in Cities, Law and Environmental Sustainability (CLES). Her research focuses on party politics and their influence on environmental governance in the local government sphere in South Africa. Some of her research interests include informality, particularly the informal economy for local economic development as a sector-specific issue of local government.
Nonhlanhla has also formed part of the Township Economic Development Task Team, a research-intense project on the Extent to which the Current Municipal Legal Framework Enables and/or Impedes the Development of Township Economies headed by CLES and South African Cities Network (SACN). Some of the presentations given by her include a guest presentation on Informality in the Development and Local Government Law lecture as well as a presentation on Environmental Protection and the Growth of South Africa’s Informal Economy: Constitutional Imperatives which was awarded second place for best presentation at the Environmental Law Association National Student Conference, 2019. She also presented at the first African Environmental Law Conference organised by the Environmental Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Cologne, Germany in May 2021. Her presentation looked at "Protecting the environment and the waste picking sector: Assessing municipal bylaws against the dictates of the Constitution".ABSTRACT
When the country went into lockdown at midnight on 26 March 2020, the often-forgotten sector of the informal economy would suffer the brunt. Firstly, waste pickers were immediately deprived of access to landfills (as these were locked) and the streets of South Africa's cities and towns. This meant that those waste pickers who slept in landfills were effectively left homeless. Secondly, the government put in place a R500 million government fund aimed at cushioning the losses of small businesses during the outbreak. However, waste pickers were excluded from benefiting from this fund. Thirdly, the government refused to declare waste picking to be an essential service. This decision was later affirmed in the Pretoria High Court, effectively leaving waste pickers with no source of income. Thus, the COVID-19 lockdown has left waste pickers with many challenges, more especially the possibility of a waste picker facing imprisonment for the job they perform. The objective of this presentation is to argue that the matrix of rights of waste pickers and the duties of local government enshrined in the Constitution should be used by municipalities to inform their reaction towards the participants of the waste picking sector.
