This study investigated the livelihood challenges faced by informal waste pickers in Mahikeng, South Africa and developed intervention guidelines to enhance their socioeconomic conditions. Despite their significant contribution to environmental sustainability and resource recovery, informal waste pickers operate under precarious conditions characterised by economic vulnerability, health risks, and social marginalisation.

This study focuses on selected texts of South African female writer, Sindiwe Magona. The selected texts are To My Children’s Children (1990), Forced to Grow (1992), Beauty’s Gift (2012), Mother to Mother (1998), Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night (1991) and When The Village Sleeps (2021). The study explores how Magona narrates the contestation of power and self-definition, delving into how she articulates the intersections of race, power, gender and class in the selected texts.

GBV has become an epidemic in Southern Africa. With a growing body of research and policies centred on GBV, the phenomenon is largely understood from the male-inflicting-harm-on-female standpoint. Consider the following quotes regarding the importance ascribed to traditional (read hegemonic) meanings associated with masculinity in African culture: “Mudi wa gwoswi a una malila” (Translated from Tshivenda it means “the house of a weak man does not stand”) (Thobejane et al., 2018).