For many Johannesburg residents, clean streets are taken for granted, but for Pikitup workers such as Nomnyaka Ndlovu and Phophi Mudzwiri, keeping the city clean is not only hard work, it’s often dangerous and emotionally draining. Ndlovu, who has worked as a street sweeper for 14 years, says her job comes with daily challenges, from meeting homeless people and not knowing whether to tell them to move to discovering newborn babies. “Sometimes homeless people just decide to take a particular space and use it as their home.
So it’s a bit challenging to work on those particular places,” Ndlovu said. “You sweep, then pick up whatever you have swept. You put it inside the dustbin and others inside the plastics they provide.
Then after that, you leave it at a particular point where the truck is able to come and pick them up.” She and her colleagues often face criticism from the public, who accuse them of not working when they see a dirty place. “They forget that we are challenged because there’s nothing we can do if people are sleeping there. We have to wait for maybe metros to remove them.
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We don’t have that power to remove them because sometimes they get angry and fight.” If maybe the city can reinforce the laws and provide them with spaces where they can get shelter, then it could be easier for us Her shift runs from 7am to 2pm but her biggest challenge is working in crowded and difficult areas where the informal traders are. “There are a lot of challenges, especially the places that are congested. The places where we work are congested due to informal traders and people who come to do shopping, and we have some more illegal dumpings.” She hopes the city will do more to enforce bylaws and provide shelters for homeless people.
“If maybe the city can reinforce the laws and provide them with spaces where they can get shelter, then it could be easier for us.” Asked about the strangest things she has found while cleaning, Ndlovu said she has found everything. “From human faeces, dead newborns, syringes, household appliances, rotten food, everything you can think of.” Ndlovu said when they come across a dead newborn, they immediately call the police. Despite all the challenges, Ndlovu said she still loves her job and takes pride in keeping Johannesburg clean.
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