As South Africa’s cities burn: we can clean-up, but we cannot sweep away inequality

Abstract

In July 2021, large swathes of South Africa experienced several days of intense violence and looting, nominally stemming from political causes, but rooted more deeply in spiraling inequality and growing poverty. As the violence slowed, the "clean-up", began immediately, with South Africa's citizens banding together to sweep away the collected waste and debris left behind. Yet, as South Africa's most populous provinces burned, the detritus of their destruction is another poignant reminder that without addressing growing inequality, both domestically and globally, it will always be one-step forward, two-steps backwards for trying to create cleaner communities and to solving our interconnected waste management and climate change challenges. Written in the aftermath of July's events, the purpose of this viewpoint is to call for a centering of inequality within waste management academic discourse. Inequality, and its causes, must move from the fringe, to the mainstream within our collective body of work. Specifically, we must continuously, and meaningfully, engage with the systemic socioeconomic and socio-political conditions responsible for our waste problems if we are to address them. Moreover, we, as academics should always be mindful of the ways in which our work relates to, or possibly contributes to, inequality, through (in)accessibility within communities or to systemic inequalities between the Global North and the Global South.

Values of COVID-19 Self-Testing among Urban and Rural South Africans: A Cross-Sectional Survey

“…The surveys were initially planned to be household-based. However, following incidents of violence and mass looting in Durban in July 2021 ( Kalina, 2021 ), the surveys in Durban were administered in community spaces (e.g. taxi ranks, shops, malls) to ensure the safety of surveyors and respondents.…”

Reasons for littering: Social constructions from lower income communities in South Africa

“…The provision of appropriate infrastructure is a sign of engaged and caring service delivery. We support Kalina's 49 viewpoint that 'if we want to safeguard the environment and create cleaner communities, the poverty, unemployment and inequalities must take centre stage'. Kalina 49 further argues that waste management studies have yet to effectively acknowledge the systemic and structural inequality, crime, poverty and unemployment in South Africa.…”

“…Salvia et al 43 and Schenck et al 45 further highlight the complex wicked nature of waste management which needs systemic, complex and process orientated approaches. Kalina 49 , Botes 52 and Du Toit 58 direct our engagement towards systemic socioeconomic and socio-political conditions that created, and continue to create, our waste problems. At the local level, the proposals of Medina 59 and Gutberlet 60 link well with the participants' suggestions.…”

“…Only then will research on societal issues in waste be meaningful. 49 The lack of service delivery and experiences of a non-caring government were therefore evident in the lack of provision of sufficient waste infrastructure and resources, as described next.…”

The Case of South Africa

“…In the wake of this unrest, the underlying structural inequalities in the country remain. South Africans feel more economically insecure; there is waning trust in the government and less cohesion across society (Kalina 2021;Patel 2021). Such tensions in the ruling party are not new, but the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed these divisions and the vulnerable state of the country's political institutions.…”