On 8 December two Honours students presented their results to the citizens of Mabopane. Chandani Maharaj investigated the behaviour of the citizens of Mabopane relating to waste; Dihan Calitz looked at the geospatial distribution of waste in Mabopane. The research stemmed from a high amount of opportunistic waste dumping found in the area and a need to identify drivers of this dumping. 

Dihan (left), Mabopanbe stakeholders (middle), and Chandani (right) at the stakeholder engagement event.

The research led to interesting insights, which were presented to the community on 8 December. The event was well-attended with more than 50 stakeholders present representing the City of Tshwane, community leaders and Elders, ward councillors, and Mabopane citizens. This shows the interest and commitment the various stakeholders have in finding solutions to the waste problem in the area.

Both Chandani, supervised by Professor Davis and enrolled for her BSocSciHons Geographical Sciences, and Dihan, supervised by Dr Hansen and enrolled for his BScHons Geoinformatics, obtained a distinction for their research projects. Their results will be taken further in 2025. 

Dihan (left) and Chandani (right) presenting their results to the stakeholders of Mabopane.

We thank the citizens of Mabopane and the City of Tshwane for actively engaging with us for the duration of the research. We would also like to thank Tiny and Frans from Tiny Tau E-Waste Management and the Rotary Community Corps Mabopane Winterveld for putting us in touch with the various stakeholders and alerting us to the waste problem in Mabopane. AfriGIS and GeoTerraImage (GTI) are thanked for providing geospatial datasets to allow us to do our analyses. The Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology is thanked for providing funds to conduct fieldwork.