Invisible voters - What do the homeless and unemployed think of the elections

As parading politicians scrabble for votes they reach out to the poor and destitute who they promise to save. They shout about more jobs, clean government, homes for the homeless and a brighter future for all. But what do the homeless and unemployed think of the coming elections? Will they vote? Anthony Mafela, Tshabalira Lebakeng, Madoda Ntuli and David Majoka all live on the margins, struggling to survive with little security or regular work. What does all the political noise mean to them? They shared their stories with Harriet Perlman. The contributors work together in the Homeless Writer's Project. 

Tshabalira Lebakeng

My mother kicked me out when her boyfriend moved in. I was 12 years old and I lived on the streets of Durban for the next six years. In 2011 I came to Jozi and eventually after four years of struggling I found my rescue. My aunt invited me to stay in her small three-room house with her and my three cousins. I went to adult school and got my matric. But finding regular work is not easy. My aunt is the only one working right now.

She pays for water, electricity, food and the small house we live in. She leaves for work at 7am and comes back at 6pm. An old woman working for me? I feel like I am not a man. But she never tells me I’m useless. She helps and encourages me to keep trying to get a job. I really want to contribute. When you see there is no mealie meal in the tin and you can’t contribute to buy more, you always sleep with a broken heart. It is terrible when you’re unemployed and not contributing food in the house. You feel like the unused tool in a busy workshop.

I have lived in Diepkloof, Soweto, for 12 years now. I am trying to make a living making theatre and writing in films and television. In 2012 I started a project called Ngizwe (hear me) Youth Theatre in Noordgesig, Soweto, for children from poor homes, which I now run with my friend, Emma. Parents go to work and when kids come back from school, they have nothing to do but play in the streets where they find trouble. In 2017 our production The Little One performed at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and won the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Human Rights Award.

Read: Youth unemployment: What are political parties doing about it?

But Ngizwe struggles for money. If government gave funding to people who try to make a difference in their communities, kids could have a chance to be kids and play again.

Where I stay crime is also really bad. Near my house there is a spaza shop and there are these five boys (about 20 years old) who stand there from morning till night. You can see the patch on their jacket where they have been leaning against the wall all day. They act like security guards. I don’t know their names. I was going to ask them but they scare me. Everyone who comes by they say: “Awusiniki lutho but awuhlali lana shiya imali ye tollgate. (You give us nothing and you don’t live around here. Pay me tollgate.)”

There was this woman, a neighbour, who comes home from work by taxi every day. She had a bag of groceries and they offered to help her carry them and then just ran away with all her bags. We know these boys. We have told the police. But they don’t want to help.

These boys even rob the old gogos who sell fruit and vegetables on the street. They threaten them with screwdrivers. Some have guns. Others it is just toy guns but you can never be 100% sure. So you don’t want to play Bruce Lee with these guys.

If you call the police they say they have only one car. Sometimes they come four or five hours later. Often not at all. The policeman uses his van to take his wife shopping. So if someone is shot – there is no vehicle to come out and investigate. But if you call from Diepkloof Extension where the rich live – they come straight away. It is funny around voting time. The politicians suddenly appear. The roads we were promised would be fixed in 2012 suddenly started to be fixed last year. If they don’t finish before May 8 I am sure they will stop on May 9 and get finished in 2024 in time for the next election.

Voting may help rich people – but it doesn’t help me.

Anthony Mafela

In 2014 I moved to a place called Fleurhof on the West Rand of Johannesburg. The area is a mine dump. The old mining hostel, which is near collapse is still there. In the neighbouring informal settlement zama zamas still dig for gold. Before I came to Fleurhof I lived in Chiawelo, Soweto. In 2014 my mom got a call from the department of housing to tell her that the house she registered for in 1996 was finally hers. After 18 years of waiting she now had an RDP house. But my mother didn’t like it here because there was nobody she knew, so she moved back to Chiawelo. But I was happy to stay here. I thought things would get better but I was wrong.

The government built these RDP flats but there has been no plan to maintain the buildings. There are many flats which have leaking pipes and sewage seeping on to the street.

I try to earn a living DJing and writing but it is tough, especially with all the load shedding. Clubs owners are shutting down or they can’t give me gigs. If you get some work there are guys who call you “ngamla” (white boss). They see you leave in the morning and find you when you come back. “Give me one beer. Buy me one beer,” they say. It’s protection money so you never say no.

Read: Addressing jobs crisis is key in this election

Here around Fleurhof there are more than 10 000 units, some RDP and some social housing for rental. But there is no police station, clinic, shops or proper school nearby. They promised us this when we moved here. If I need to go to the police station or clinic, I catch a taxi to Florida which costs me R16 return.

There is a lot of tension between the hostel dwellers and the people in the RDP flats. People from Soweto were allocated these RDP flats and the people from the hostel were not happy. They felt the government wasn’t fair. They had been in the area for so long.

It was their area and they did not want people from Soweto to take their place. There have been numerous protests and tension between the RDP residents and the hostel dwellers, but nothing is done to resolve this.

When it comes to voting I don’t know which party to vote for. There has been no progress with this government. Yes, I will vote. I want things to be different. But if you buy a box of tomatoes and one is rotten then all the tomatoes get infected. I don’t think the ruling party can be fixed.

Madoda Ntuli

I lived on the streets for many years in Joburg. I am the director and owner of 90mins (www.90mins.co.za) a soccer website covering local and international football. Living on the streets was a secret I kept from my family and friends for many years. I had been living in a one-room flat in Jeppe with some of my home boys from Empangeni. I didn’t have a proper job but the boys supported me. I had been an extra on Generations, playing the guy drinking at the bar so I was a celebrity in their midst.

One night I arrived home to find everyone’s belongings on the street and there were people everywhere running and helping themselves to the spoils. They locked the building and padlocked it shut.

That’s how my life on the street started and where I ended up living for the next five years. I would sleep on the street but during the day go to the office – McDonald’s in town – where I had free Wi-Fi and could work on my website. I would keep my blanket in plastic under a drain for safety. I stayed in town because I had easy internet access.

I remember being harassed by JMPD after they found me sleeping on the pavement. They took all my belongings and poured water on my blanket and on the pavement to make sure I didn’t go back to sleep there. I learnt to sleep standing up. I wasn’t a beggar. Just a homeless man.

Over the years I tried to source NYDA [National Youth Development Agency] funds to help grow my business as a start-up. I filled in many forms at their offices in town.

They said the turnaround was three weeks and I waited and waited and never heard back. No rejection letter came. Just silence. I kept going back and trying for more than five years. Then I stopped.

It’s so frustrating. My dream is to make my website work and to earn enough money to survive and have a decent place to live. It’s been 10 years now. I am still struggling. Voting empowers the government and those who do business with them, not the poor. I don’t know if I will vote or not. I don’t see how my vote will change anything. I don’t trust politicians. They are just in positions to fill their own stomachs.

David Majoka

I live in a flat in Hillbrow which I share with 16 other people. I rent a bed and a mattress for R250 a month. There is no proper running water and we get water from a pipe that we have connected to the fire hosepipe on the 4th floor.

The building is owned by the city and I pay my rent to Nobuzwe who pays money to a committee at the flat for some security and electricity. Our flat is on the first floor. It has two rooms. The one is for women and the other for men. Some tenants like myself are unemployed. Others have jobs but they don’t earn enough to rent a flat on their own or with their family. One guy works as a porter at the hospital, another is a waiter in Kyalami. One of the women is a careworker at an old-age home.

There is this other guy who is qualified in IT but can’t get a proper job. One of my friends is a gay man who stays here because he feels safer in Hillbrow than in the township.

I have no permanent job so it is difficult to get a lease on a place to stay. At least this is a roof over my head. But not for long. The council are evicting us. They say they will be putting us in a place in Kerk Street. I bet it will be after the elections to save face.

I have been looking for a proper job for a long time. A job that will give me a regular income so that I can have my own place and have enough money for myself and to send home to the Eastern Cape and for my children.

I will vote – not because I believe what the politicians say but because poor people are tired of all the broken promises. When it comes to the election I will vote for the ruling party because I believe they are the only ones who can sort out the mess they have put us in in the first place.

TALK TO US

Many homeless people will not bother to vote. They say politicians leave them high and dry. Do you agree?

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