Red Alert is a solutions-focused, five-part series exploring extreme heat and the world of (informal) work in South Africa
Specialist climate journalist Leonie Joubert spends time with minibus taxi drivers, who represent a sector that ferries some 70% of South African commuters each year, but whose taxis are hellishly hot in the summer and have no air conditioning. Joubert also visits informal food traders in one of the country's muggiest coastal cities, eThekwini, to understand how these small entrepreneurs are responding to heat extremes even as the city fails to deliver sanitation, water, and clean trading stations.
Red Alert investigates the potential for new jobs in the disaster management and emergency response sector. First responder jobs are vital as the climate becomes increasingly unstable.
This project, which includes solutions-focused reporting, also considers the vulnerability of outdoor laborers and non-contracted domestic workers. How can they be buffered in a no-work/no-pay context? Finally, this series will focus on the critical role that informal waste collectors play in the country's waste system, the stigma the sector's workers face, and their vulnerability to extreme heat.
The Red Alert series is part of the multi-year mobile journalism project Story Ark: Tales From Southern Africa's Climate Tipping Points.
