In 2010 a 24-year-old Eliot Chisango arrived in South Africa to kick start his career in environmentalism. Despite a degree in environmental studies from Africa University, he says the socioeconomic situation of his home country Zimbabwe made it difficult for him to get a job.
The major turning point in his life came in the form of an internship with the nongovernmental organisation Planning, Education, Agriculture, Cooperatives and Environment Foundation in May that year. He now heads up the environmental portfolio of the organisation and, in this role, he founded an increasingly successful recycling buyback centre in rural Limpopo.
While researching the feasibility of the project he met five local women who were trying to make a living off the local dumpsite in Senwabarwana, part of the Blouberg local municipality in the Capricorn district of Limpopo.
“These ladies had no access to markets, no protective clothing and no shelter to protect them from the elements,” he says. This sparked his interest in rural economic development and he made the five women the direct beneficiaries of the centre, which opened its doors in February last year.
He also founded the Donkeys 4 Development project, which encourages locals to use donkey carts to help them collect waste in the area, to sell at the buyback centre. Donkeys in the area are often abused and neglected and the project is also geared to address this.
Chisango is in the final year of his master’s degree at Unisa; his thesis focuses on the potential of waste collection for rural development through the example of his Senwabarwana buyback centre, where 13 permanent jobs have already been created with “massive potential for more indirect jobs, especially for casual waste collectors”.
He has especially strong feelings for the project after numerous failed attempts to access donor funding:
“To most potential donors waste management was not ‘sexy’ enough, but this is an area where there is so much untapped environmental and economic potential for South Africa.”
He encourages young Africans to dream big, “but always remember, be it in life or your career, you have to start off from somewhere”.
