From minister to homeless: Under a tree with a degree

The 47-year-old Donovan Manuel has a degree in theology and is one of many men who live at the park at the bottom of Union Buildings.

Manuel said they saw the staff of the Union Buildings preparing for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the Brics Summit this week.

He adds whenever something was happening at the Union Buildings, they usually saw the gardens being closed and the flags being raised.

“I love it. I saw them putting up the flags on Sunday. We heard those loud bangs. I even counted the cannon shots fired; it’s always 21 times,” said Manuel.

He said he loved the Union Buildings because they symbolised victory over struggle.

“But here we live in the park, forgotten on the sideline,” he lamented.

Before Manuel lived on the streets, he worked as a guard at Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town. That was before studying theology and working as a minister for six years.

Manuel, who is divorced with two children, said he last saw his daughter more than four years ago.

“If I saw her now, I wouldn’t even know her. I wrote her a letter last week and told her she would laugh when she saw how grey my beard got,” he joked.

Manuel said after his marriage fell apart, he followed his child to Limpopo where he briefly worked in the ministry.

He later moved to Gauteng because that wasn’t working out for him. He also briefly lived with the protesting Khoisan group at the Union Buildings gardens but had to leave – because that also didn’t work out…

“When I got involved in drugs, I lost everything – even my car was repossessed. Living in the park is what you’d call rock bottom.”

Manuel said he couldn’t leave the tree where he slept to find food because his blankets, shoes, Bibles and possessions would get stolen.

“I’m stuck in this spot.

“So I stay here and read the Bible. I am currently in the perfect will of God.”

Manuel said he had only 10c to his name, which he picked up while looking for cigarette butts to smoke.

“I’m embarrassed because I collect butts to roll out the little tobacco left, then I roll a cigarette with a slip or the back pages of the Bible to smoke,” he explained.

He said something as simple as washing yourself out of a bucket in the park puts you in a vulnerable position and makes you a soft target because you have to bathe during the day.

“At night it’s cold and dark, plus the water gets cold, so it’s better to wash during the day.”

Manuel starts his day early and watches the sunrise every day with the birds.

“I whistle with the birds and call them.

“They come down from the Union Buildings to the park when I whistle to them.

“I first started feeding the birds when I lived up there with the Khoisan,” he said.

Living on the street was hard and drugs helped numb the pain.

“God knows me and he knows when I use drugs.

“You cannot go through this as a normal person or sober; you can’t through this on Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. I live on dry bread,” he said.

However, that didn’t stop him from living out his ministry and using his circumstances to preach – or sometimes scream – the gospel to whoever in the park was willing to listen.

Manuel described living on the street as disgusting.

“Some people here get used to living like this, but I can’t,” he said.