Single mom’s only wish is to get more rest
The 35-year-old is grateful to have a way to work, but a trip that should take her about 15 minutes to get to work, takes her about an hour on a good day.
Have you ever woken up early for school or work but somehow five minutes run away from you, and those lost precious five minutes mean that you are going to be almost an hour late to start your day?
The concept of time is of this essence for Bredell resident, Phindile Sidu who is single-handedly and successfully raising three boys while using means of public transport to travel.
Phindile uses the taxi services to travel to work in Benoni, every day.
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“I wake up at 5.30am, then I get ready for work,” she explained.
“I then wake all three of my children up and I bath my twins who are five years old.”
After bathing her two boys, she makes breakfast and lunch for all three boys who then take the bus to school.
“The bus fetches my twins at 6.40am and my eldest son, Nhlanhla Sidu (15), takes the bus at 7.10am,” she explained.
“But if for any reason any of the boys are late, they have to take the taxi with me.
“It is a 15-minute walk to the taxi rank and my twins are young so they cannot walk fast for a long time without getting tired.”
Nhlanhla then takes the taxi to Petit High School, but Phindile has to take her twins to school before going to work.
“I usually take three taxis to get to Benoni, but if the bus does not arrive to fetch my twins, or we are late and miss the bus, then I drop them off at their school in Bredell and then go to work which requires four taxis.”
If Phindile takes her twins to school, she ends up being almost an hour late for work.
“Public transport takes me to where I need to be, but I would really love to have my own car especially when there are incidents with my children,” she said.
“If something happens at one of their schools, it takes me almost an hour to get to them, and Bredell is not far from Benoni.”
Phindile said that she waits for all three taxis to get full before they leave the taxi rank.
“Sometimes this delays me for work, even when I am on time at the taxi rank,” she explained.
Nhlanhla finishes school around 3pm, however, if he misses that bus because he is late, then he takes the taxi and only arrives home by 5.30pm.
“I try to leave work by 4pm so I can get home around 5.30 – 6pm, but if Nhlanhla misses the bus, then he is not home by the time his brothers get home at 3.30pm, and that is a problem because there is nobody to look after them.”
The former Daveyton resident said due to personal circumstances she had to move to Bredell, but life was a bit easier when she resided in Benoni and worked in Benoni because it took her half an hour to travel from Rynfield to Daveyton and vice versa.
“My twins used to go to a school that was down the road from where we lived,” she explained.
“Sometimes I wish life was a bit easier so my boys and I could sleep in a bit more during the morning and at night.”
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