A Sandton businesswoman involved in the Alexandra sleepover project of Sandtonites has made such profound observations of life in the iconic township in just a little less than 24 hours she spent there.
Clair Jaeger, the Sandton businesswoman who was part of the four Sandtonites that spent a night in Alexandra, among them 92-year-old Solly Krok, said people in the township are still buzzing with enthusiasm, despite the hardships they experience every day.
She added, “As the team settled down for the night, we were safe, warm and comfortable, yet it remained impossible for us to sleep. The harsh contrasts of Alexandra are jarring. Poverty, squalor, and unemployment are evident everywhere.
“Hunger is chronic and the needs of people can best be described as a relentless tsunami. As huge as the [makeover] project is, it’s but a drop in the ocean. The effects of Covid-19 are most evident here in loss of jobs and financial hopelessness.
After a quick coffee the next morning, the team visited the Phuthaditjaba Centre, which is a former home of their host and leading township philanthropist and community builder, Linda Twala. This is now an Africa Tikkun initiative, established in 2006 to serve meals to the elderly. Twala had been running it long before he teamed up with Afrika Tikkun.
“Soon after it opened in 2006 after refurbishment, children started arriving at the facility, looking for a meal and a place to get off the streets. The centre blossomed into an amazing child and youth centre, sporting a 1 600m², two-storey refuge with excellent facilities.
“Being greeted by classrooms of singing children always lifts the soul, but in Alexandra, it again emphasises the stark contrasts that are so prevalent. I was privileged to visit the home of an elderly resident, who had been attacked by an army of rats. Being over 90 years old, she was unable to escape, and the rodents literally gnawed on her legs.”
Despite this unthinkable trauma, Jaeger said ‘her warm smile when we brought her some blankets and bread will be etched on my heart for a long, long time.
An infestation of rats the size of cats has been plaguing the township residents for years, and this tragedy has led to a notable clean-up of street litter.
Jaeger was speaking about the misfortune of Grace Vilakazi (90). Twala has recently refurbished her house and built her an inside toilet and installed a geyser for her to have a warm bath. Twala also flushed out the menacing rodents and cleaned the front of her house which had been turned into a dumping site by other community members.
Jaeger concluded by saying, “Every year I prepare myself for Yom Kippur both mentally and physically, I deliberately wean myself off coffee in fear of a caffeine headache and we all fuss about fasting for a day. I’m ashamed. So much fuss because I don’t eat for a day, yet so many people in Alexandra have not eaten today, nor did they eat yesterday, and no guarantee they will eat tomorrow.
“For them it’s not an annual event for a day, it’s a way of life. They have no food! Going days without eating has become the norm. Many maternity clinics have started trying to give small meals to pregnant mothers because it has often been several days since their last meal.
As a parent, the next time you are tired and frustrated with a crying child that isn’t easily soothed, give a thought to the thousands of mothers who cannot comfort their children who cry from hunger and cold. They simply have no food to give them. This is not a remote situation in a far-off place; these are real people, just a few kilometres down the road in Alexandra.”
