JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng — The ongoing Pikitup strike has left Johannesburg streets lined with uncollected waste, prompting the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in Gauteng to urgently call on the City of Johannesburg and the municipal waste management entity to resolve the escalating sanitation crisis, particularly in vulnerable township communities.
Earlier this month, over 300 Pikitup contract workers embarked on a work stoppage, demanding permanent employment and better wages. The industrial action has resulted in severe environmental and public health challenges across several areas, with the SAHRC warning that the growing piles of refuse violate residents’ constitutional rights to basic services and a safe, healthy environment.
The impact has been especially dire in Alexandra Township, where residents have been forced to handle raw garbage with their bare hands. Community members describe the environment as unbearable and deeply unhygienic, noting that rats and dogs are dragging the waste into homes situated closely along the streets. The crisis disproportionately affects children, the elderly, the disabled, and the sick, pushing community tensions to a boiling point.
While there is public sympathy for the workers’ plight against poverty, the strike has exposed deeper systemic and internal issues. An anonymous permanent Pikitup employee revealed that the unrest stems from broken promises of permanent employment made to casual workers in 2023. When new positions reportedly opened in 2024, applicants allegedly included family members of Pikitup management and local Alexandra councilors. This has left casual workers, who have been in their roles since 2019, feeling marginalized and frustrated.
The internal friction has reportedly led to allegations of intimidation. Protesting individuals have been accused of scattering waste in the streets and blocking gates, making it difficult for willing employees to deploy trucks and resume collection services.
In a grassroots effort to mitigate the health hazard, residents have appealed to National Youth Service (NYS) learnership workers—who were originally assigned to clean drains—to temporarily assist the community in clearing the massive backlog of filth and uncollected refuse.
The SAHRC has strongly criticized the City of Johannesburg’s broader financial mismanagement, pointing to outstanding municipal debts to entities like Eskom and Rand Water. The commission urged city leadership to urgently sort out their financial planning to create a viable pathway for permanently hiring these casual workers, thereby ending the cycle of disruptive strikes and service delivery failures.
Pikitup spokesperson Anthony Selepe was contacted for comment regarding the allegations of mismanagement, the specific demands of the striking contract workforce, and the entity’s plan to restore normal waste collection services.
