WastePreneurs in Greenside accused of exploitation
A community member has rung the alarm on his observations of the WastePreneurs waste pickers whom they say are not paid a livable wage.
One reader has raised concerns over the welfare of waste pickers associated with the WastePreneurs in Greenside. The reader who asked to remain anonymous for safety concerns accused the WastePreneurs of failing to produce a trading license, City of Johannesburg (CoJ) permission and financial statements.
The reader claims they are not a registered non-profit organisation (NPO) and their employees are not registered for Pay as You Earn, Skills Development Levy and Unemployment Insurance Fund.
Also, their employees are not being paid a livable wage as they are seen as sellers to the site and do not make minimum wage. They referenced the WastePreneurs’ manifesto as being to uplift the community and environment.
According to the complainant, “The environment and rivers are being polluted heavily and someone is making money from this. The pickers are starving to death and the parks and rivers have never looked worse and they are the cause of exploitation and heavy pollution. They are a menace to society and ADreach Foundation’s Steve Jourdan and Godfrey Phakedi just say it’s not their fault or problem what the business and surrounds look like and how their employees live,” said the reader. The complainant said they had met with Jourdan and spoken to Phakedi several times and both held the aforesaid sentiments.
ADreach Foundation founder and CEO Jourdan provided an affidavit stamped on May 17 last year, which shows WastePreneurs registered as a BBBEE Micro Enterprise. He said the micro-enterprise has a turnover of less than R10m per annum and does not need to be registered as an NPO. It is funded and managed through the SDI Foundation Trust which ensures that compliance and good governance are adhered to.
He said that through the SDI Trust all wages paid to WastePreneurs employees are monitored to ensure that they are above the minimum wage level. One of the key objectives of WastePreneurs, since its launch eight years ago, is to ensure that the 112 plus Police registered WastePreneurs utilising the site have the ability to at least double their earnings.
Jourdan said financials are done on a monthly basis, with all trading data being gathered daily on a specially designed Waste Management System; measuring the waste by category, in kgs and value by WastePreneurs. The founder said they are endorsed by the CoJ and Pikitup with all the required licenses and health and safety requirements in place.
“The WastePreneurs site has a waste sorting area to avoid the pollution of our environment. On average 1.5tons of sorted unsaleable waste, that would have ended up in the environment is removed from the site,” said Jourdan.
Sifiso Cebekhulu of SDI Trust and currently managing the WastePreneurs said the value of the products they sell, for example, water bottles, termed as PET, may drop. These depend on exporting and importing policies, load-shedding and other factors. He said the box material is about 50c and PET R2, 70. “WastePreneurs has to buy these products and sell them to end users and we also have to make a profit to pay our expenses.”
He further highlighted that they have bought the waste pickers trolleys and work suits so that they can be identified. He added that Phakedi has taught some of them to drive and they have gone on to become e-hailing transport drivers.
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