Turning trash from the Jukskei River into art

JOHANNESBURG - One of the fondest memories Sipho Gwala has of growing up in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, is playing by the Jukskei River searching for crabs. As a child, he was told crabs had money inside of them, a myth that motivated him and his friends to fish for the creatures.

The fable he was told as a child led to his interest as an adult when he learnt that crabs were indeed known for "consuming trash found in water" and being the "sea cleaning creatures", scientifically known as scavengers for their ability to consume dead organisms and debris.

Gwala said he worried that crabs could not be the only ones cleaning this river when he partnered with the Alexandra Water Warriors, a community-run environmental organisation focused on cleaning the Jukskei River, among other things.

The Jukskei River is the longest river in Johannesburg, spanning over 300km from the city into the Crocodile River, which then drains into the Limpopo River and ultimately the Indian Ocean.

For the community of Alexandra, it was once a stop on a tour-guided route but with the deterioration from the pollution, it has become an eyesore.

CEO of Alex Water Warriors, Semadi Manganye, said: "We live in an area where water is scarce and our river suffers too, with all the dilapidated infrastructure, sewage ends up in the river which is where we come in; we want to clean these spaces make sure we preserve them for future generations."

The Alex Water Warriors found a unique way to clean the Jukskei River by incorporating the use of litter traps, handwoven by members of the Kula Marolen Foundation, another Alex-based organisation. The traps are made from plastic materials that are found in the river, recycled and reused.

By profession, Gwala is an artist and his part in the project is making art to exhibit alongside the river. Gwala is part of a group of other Alex-based artists who use the recycled materials found in the river to create art, like sculptures.

One of those artists is Rejoice Malete, who sculpted a human-sized rodent and mongoose from tyres thrown away in the river. She was also part of the team that made a mosaic, something she said she did not know she could do.

Malete has only been a resident of Alex for two years, forced to move after the loss of a family member. 

She said: "When I moved, I could not find a school for my child who has special needs, so I’ve been involving him in my projects which require handwork and it’s been fulfilling knowing he is learning new skills."

Yesterday the launch of a partnership led by environmental artist and scientist, Hennelie Coetzee, who works with Alex Water Warriors and the Johannesburg Inner City Partnership (JICP).

JICP CEO, David van Niekerk said: "The three-year initiative is aimed at revitalising the Upper Jukskei River catchment through nature-based solutions that address flooding, erosion, manage urban heat, improve water security and enhance biodiversity protection, ultimately increasing climate resilience for over a million people."

Researcher at Gauteng City Region Observatory, Dr Samikhsha Singh, said this recycling could offer the manufacturing industry the solutions of biodegradable material to use to avert a pollution crisis.

She said: "If we are finding a lot of polystyrene in the river system, they come from food packaging and they very easily break down into smaller pieces, so what can we do to manage this, should we do something like swapping out polystyrene packing for more biodegradable stuff."

Manganye said they hoped to get more partnerships of this nature.

"We are trying to build that bridge between the ones that want, the ones that need with the ones that have."