Dumping on women : gender and privatisation of waste management

Co-published with the Municipal Services Project (MSP)The table of contents for this item can be shared with the requester. The requester may then choose one chapter, up to 10% of the item, as per the Fair Dealing provision of the Canadian Copyright ActMore and more local governments across South Africa are privatising their waste management systems. They are doing this because of national government’s push to get the private sector more involved in providing basic services, like water and waste management. Municipalities are also privatising to promote black economic empowerment. Who are the winners and who are the losers? Research conducted in Thabazimbi, Sol Plaatje and Johannesburg municipalities shows that both workers and working-class communities suffer as a result of privatisation of basic services. It also shows how, because of the gender division of labour at work and at home, and because women waste management workers employed by private companies are largely left out of collective bargaining agreements, it is women workers who suffer most