Forty-two … that’s the number of men and women who woke up at 5am on a cold and windy Saturday morning and walked from Tembisa, Ivory Park and Kaalfontein to the entrance of the Midway Mews shopping centre on Harry Galaun Drive in Midrand on 19 August.
Thirty-three of them were single women and the breadwinners of the family with between two to four children each, and they don’t have enough money for transport. So they walk.
Husbands or male partners who have abandoned them or have passed away, have left these women with no money, resources or means of survival. ‘We are hungry’ many complained, and told the Midrand Reporter that their children only have two slices of bread to eat some days.
The women went to Halfway House to market themselves informally and hoped to find employment to clean or wash or any other household chores that may be required. Besides trying to survive, these women want to make sure their children attend school and get a good education, because they don’t want them to suffer the same hardships as themselves.
Some 50 metres away, also on Harry Galaun Drive, nine young men were leaning against a wall in an attempt to keep warm and out of the icy wind. Painting, gardening, contracting, plumbing and electrical services were on offer – and if they manage to get one of day work a week, they consider themselves fortunate.
Most men and women want to go to school because they’ve realised that education is key. “But who’s going to pay the rent or get the food?” they asked, as another generation of youth faces high unemployment with little skills to get out of the poverty rut.
This is only one corner at one shopping centre in Midrand and this scene is being played out at thousands of venues and intersections throughout the country, every day.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the current time-bomb – the dilemma of the youth in South Africa. It’s real, and it’s ticking at an intersection near you.
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