Despite the Department of Social Development offering temporary shelter for homeless people at the Polokwane Show Grounds, some prefer staying on the street in hopes of earning an income.
Polokwane Observer spoke to Steven Moyo, who stays at a dumping site in the city.
He says he was initially taken to the showgrounds by law enforcement officers, but only stayed there for a few days before he decided to go back to the dumping site.
“The showgrounds is a great place, but I prefer to have freedom of movement.
“They serve you meals every day, but there is no way you can make money while you are there. Many of us decided to leave because we want to make money to send home to our families.”
Steven came to South Africa from Zimbabwe in 2012.
“Things are bad on that side. Unless you are already rich there is not any means of creating an income.
“At least when I am here, I can try and make an effort and save a bit of money.”
Steven stays at the dumping site with 11 other men of various nationalities.
“All of us here are like brothers, some come from middle Africa and some are South Africans but when we are here, we look out for each other.”
His primary source of income is collecting material that he can sell for cash.
“Because of the lockdown, it is difficult to get ‘piece jobs’ which is how I would usually survive. When people come here to dump their stuff, we go through it and try to find items that we can reuse. Even the clothes I am wearing, I picked out from other people’s trash.
“There are no boundaries, we all rush to the cars because whoever gets there first, has first dibs on the stuff.”
Steven takes the materials he picks out, and walks to Ladanna where he can get cash for the scrap.
“Even if the items I take there are worth R20, it means that evening I will have something to eat. Whenever I get some money, I try to save a bit of it for a rainy day.”
He hopes that one day he will have enough to go home and see his family, that he has not seen since he first came to South Africa.
Story: Umpha Manenzhe
