There’s a heat wave in Johannesburg but in Alexandra township Anastacia Jali is wearing a pink wide-brim hat, her favourite blue shweshwe print dress and two pairs of black thermal stockings.
Jali, 51, doesn’t mind the heat as she approaches the Jukskei River at 8am carrying an orange rake and gumboots.
Two days a week the unemployed breadwinner leaves her five children and three grandchildren in her one-bedroom shack to clean the section of Johannesburg’s longest river that flows through Alexandra.
As sweat drips down her face Jali’s main concern is how she’ll get rid of the stench emanating from the river.
“When I get home I know my grandchildren will say: ‘Gogo you are dirty’,” she says. “After I clean the river I smell bad. I have to bath immediately. The smell is just too bad.”
The single mother is part of a team of about 250 volunteers who started cleaning the river in September last year. Crippling unemployment and the effects of the pandemic saw them take the task upon themselves.
Founded by Paul Maluleke, CEO of the Greater Alexandra Tourism and Heritage Association, the group, known as the Alexandra Water Warriors, gathers along different points of the river in the township.
When we meet Jali she is at one of the cleaning points opposite the Alexandra cemetery. She is joined by about 10 other women, armed with rakes, boots and rubber gloves.
Waste from shacks trickles down the embankment. When the women take a break a resident empties a bucket of waste into the river. She’s reprimanded but pays no mind. A little later another resident empties grey water into the river, which is littered with white polystyrene containers, plastic, clothing, condom wrappers and beer cans.
“Our biggest challenge is the polystyrene,” says Maluleke. “We remove approximately 150 bags of rubbish a day. It’s not only from Alex. This waste is also from the inner city. The Jukskei River is one of our heritage sites and we felt that we had an obligation to clean it.”
Theriver begins in Ellis Park and flows through Alexandra, Midrand, Dainfern, Steyn City and then west of Pretoria before joining the Crocodile River outside Lanseria.
The women explain why they’re so passionate about cleaning the river.
This feels like my real job. I like to come here and clean. When I’m not here it feels like something is missing
— Alex resident Mpho Tefo
Team leader Mpho Tefo, 43, is a single mother who depends on a social grant and ad hoc domestic work to take care of her two sons aged 15 and five.
“When I’m not here I feel empty. I have to come here and clean, but sometimes we find things that are not good. We find sangomas have left things from their ceremonies, so sometimes when you are in the river you can feel there’s something spiritual going on. We’ve found candles, slaughtered chickens and muti on the river bank,” she says.
As we walk along the river, Tefo points out candles. The water is too murky to spot the slaughtered animals she believes are also used in rituals.
The group meets every Monday and Wednesday. . Tefo says they would gladly clean the river every day but can’t because they need to supplement their social grants with whatever paying work they can get. At first they planned to only clean once a week but decided on twice a week when they noticed the difference they were making .
“I wish we could get more equipment like gloves and overalls, masks and boots for all of us. The only concern I have is whether we’ll get sick because the river is dirty,” Tefo says.
Her concern is valid. The Jukskei River is as polluted as it is iconic, carrying raw sewage and E.coli. In 2016 the city of Johannesburg issued an E.coli warning to residents of Alexandra after heavy storms and flooding affected people living in the Setswetla informal settlement on the river bank. Previously the river also tested positive for cholera.
Sewage pollution is one of the Jukskei’s biggest problems. The main source is the inner city. The second contributor is Alexandra itself. Failing infrastructure, poor service delivery and overcrowding have led to residents building homes right on the river’s edge. For some the river is the closest and only source of water and this often means toilet waste gets flushed into the shallow waters.
“In Setswana we say its senyama [bad luck]. When you come from the river, it’s bad luck. We find bad things in the river like still-born babies, dogs, rats and we’ve even found dead bodies. Rats are a small thing. The problem is that we find dogs, clothes and nappies. They dump everything here but I feel comfortable when I’m here,” Tefo says.
Drifting in the water are household waste and faeces, all collected at a pollution trap opposite a children’s park. The trap, which was set up in March, catches the floating plastic bottles and polystyrene. A few metres away Tefo and the other women rake the waste to the shallow part of the river, pushing it downstream to the trap where Nhlangano Zwane collects and separates it.
Zwane is one of five people who helped install the trap, which took five hours to build. While separating the plastic bottles from the polystyrene, some children playing nearby accidentally kick their soccer ball into the river. This happens regularly and Zwane, who is dressed in orange overalls, a mask and boots, helps to retrieve it.
Johanna Banda, 36, says she was born and raised in Alexandra and has never been able to play near the river. The single mother of three says her dream is that one day children will be able to enjoy the water.
“The river was always this dirty. We could never play in it. I’m cleaning because I hope that one day my children will be able to swim or play in the river,” Banda says.
For Nokulunga Nyengane, 30, the hope is that volunteering to clean the river will lead to employment. Together with her five children, Nyengane relies on her grandmother’s social grant and a child support grant.
“I am happy to clean the river. We actually enjoy it. For me, when I’m inside the river, I feel free. It’s better than sitting at home. At least in the river we are making a difference,” she says.
Soon another group of children also lose a ball in the river. This time it’s a tennis ball and Zwane is not around to assist.
Two boys are nominated to retrieve the ball. They scale the embankment. As one boy holds onto a branch the other slides down the slope closer to where it ball might be.
Even though this river is rotten, I am comfortable here
— Anastacia Jali
Maluleke says this happens every day.
“This is just how it goes here. That ball is gone and they know it. There’s no life here. The Jukskei River used to give us fish and frogs but now there’s nothing. That makes me sad and that’s why we do what we do. We are seeing the difference. It’s not enough but the river looks better now. We’ve removed almost 500,000 bags of rubbish since we started and the difference we’re making here is being seen in Harties [Hartbeespoort Dam],” he says.
It’s after 1pm and Jali has taken her boots off and, with her rake in her hand, she’s getting ready to go home and bath. She is pleased with her efforts for the day but doesn’t know how she’ll face her grandchildren.
“Even though this river is rotten, I am comfortable here. I wear this dress because I am proud to clean this river. But I know that when I go home I will have to face my grandchildren. They see me leaving the house with my rake and my boots and they know I’m going to work, but they don’t understand how I am working when there’s no food at home. They see other kids having Simba chips and yoghurt. It’s painful because I can’t even afford to buy chips for them. I have to say no and it’s breaks my heart,” Jali says.
Despite their hunger, the women all vow to return to the river to clean because there they are truly free.
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