Bovine Head Cooks Part 1: History and Memory

Rebecca Plumbley Bovine head meat served with steamed bread is a popular meal in Warwick. Cooking involves the cleaving of meat off the skull bones which takes about 30 minutes. The meat is then boiled in a pot for an hour. In Warwick Junction the main consumers of bovine head meat are the porters and … Read more

Mealie Cooks Part 2: Evolving Infrastructure

Rebecca Plumbley This blog post is the 2nd part of the story of the Mealie Cooks; read part 1 here. The cooking process of mealies involves placing 13 dozen mealies in a 200l steel drum with 40-50L water and 45g of bicarbonate of soda. This is then covered with a piece of plastic and left … Read more

Mealie Cooks Part 1: “There’s fire in my system”

Rebecca Plumbley As a popular, low-cost, carbohydrate fast-food mealie (corn-on-the-cob) cooking has a long history in Warwick and its surrounds. Like many other activities in Warwick mealie cooking has recently undergone its third iteration of infrastructure to enable informal workers. There are currently around 64 cooks, the majority of whom are women. As some of … Read more

“Qeda usizi” end [our] suffering: improving the lives of street cooks – Part 2

Phumelele Mkhize and Trang Luu (follow on from Part 1) The horizontal stove design emerged as an option from the MIT D-Lab, as an iteration of the existing cooking method, combined with learning’s from smoke and fuel efficient stove technologies- such as RocketWorks. The concept design aimed to use existing materials and technical insight to … Read more

“Qeda usizi” end our suffering: improving the lives of street cooks – Part 1.

Phumelele Mkhize and Trang Luu Freshly cooked mealies (corn-on-the-cob) are an essential Durban street food staple – they’re healthy, affordable and conveniently accessible to the local commuter population. Over the years, the preparation of mealies in the inner city has developed incrementally- from the hazard of large open fire cooking on city pavements, to a designated site … Read more

Human Factors and Informal Work

Rebecca Plumbley In continuing the partnership between Rhodes University and Asiye eTafuleni, further anthropometric work is currently being conducted by a masters student in Warwick. AeT is encouraged that work is being done to understand some of the finer grained challenges faced by informal workers. Anthropometry refers to the proportions of the human body and … Read more

Sensitizing Informal Workers to Hearing Health

Rebecca Plumbley Last week students and educators from the University of KwaZulu-Natal held hearing screenings and diagnostic testing with around 50 informal workers in Warwick Junction, as part of a greater socio-sonic research project. This is aligned to Asiye eTafuleni’s hearing preservation programme and continued interest in health, occupational safety and social protection. UKZN students … Read more

Reflecting on 2016 and Beyond: Part 2 of 2

Tasmi Quazi This article is the second part of a reflection piece of our work in 2016 and after much deliberation, we selected 16 major events or projects to highlight, much of which is continuing into the present year. Part 1 covered organisation milestones such as new funding support, project achievements particularly those breaking new … Read more

Putting occupational health and safety first for informal workers: A profile of MaDlamini

Annalise Mathers & Tasmi Quazi MaDlamini, also known as Zodwa Khumalo, is a figurehead and matriarch in Warwick Junction. At 71 years old, she is one of the most well-known and respected traditional healers, or izinyanga, in the Traditional Medicine or Muthi Market, where over 700 healers and their associates prepare traditional medicine for those … Read more