For the Masithandane Women’s Group who sit under Drostdy Arch, the recently enforced plastic bag legislation has meant fewer products to sell and less money to take home.
Lillian Nobele, 53, is tired from a hard day’s work of weaving. She sighs and says, “If I don’t sell anything I usually have to walk home, and I live way out there in the township. Do you know how far Joza is? I am an old woman and my legs are swollen.”
Nobele is chairperson of the group – a project aimed at empowering women in disadvantaged communities in and around Grahamstown. Eighty women, most of whom are over 50, make and sell household ornaments, hats, floor mats, bags and even toilet roll holders out of old plastic bags.
The women say they understand why the law was introduced, but feel that other methods could have been used to clean up the environment – methods that would not jeopardise their livelihoods.
Workmate Notemba Makinana holds up the handbag she has just finished making. She needs between 60 and 80 plastic bags to weave one handbag, which usually takes three days to make.
“The new types of plastic bags are so very hard and just too thick to use anyway. We are old mammas with families to support. Plastic bags are scarce now and it is too expensive for us to buy them from the shops,” says Makinana.
Plastic bags now sold at shopping centres around the country have an increased thickness of 80 micrometres. The extra thickness is designed to make plastic bags last longer, but for the women of Masithandane, it is just “a hassle”.
Before the law was introduced, the women used to pick up bags lying on the streets, or they would receive them from the soup kitchen in the town hall. For a number of years the Grahamstown Feeding Association has encouraged homeless and unemployed people in town to collect 10 bags each in exchange for a cup of soup and a slice of bread a day. The law has also affected the kitchen – there are not as many bags coming in.
Makinana said that luckily the group had one bag of old packets locked away at one of their homes in Joza township.
“We have made our things to sell for the festival, although we wanted to make more. We have no idea what we’ll do now. Last year was a good year – we are worried about this year. We do not have nearly as much to sell this year.”
The women sent a petition to town council shortly before the legislation was introduced on 7 May and have had no response so far.
“We do not know what happened to that paper,” said Nobele.
“Now the law is here and it is solid. We are old women, what more can we do now?” Bag legislation affects festival crafters. – Cue-Cuewire