SLEEPING WITH A BROKEN HEART

It’s a terrible feeling when you’re unemployed and not contributing food in the house. You feel like the unused tool in a busy workshop.

In Matatiele there was a sense of helping each other. You borrow a donkey from someone and then you help him by giving him mealies. You help at harvest and pay with your labour.

I’m living with my aunt and three cousins. My aunt is the one working. Without her we are nothing. She pays for water, electricity, food and the small house we live in. My aunt leaves for work at 7:00 am and comes back at 6:00 pm. An old woman working for me? I feel like I am not a man. But I don’t remember her ever telling me I’m useless. She helps and encourages me to work hard and keep trying to get a job. Some other family members in Matatiele tell my aunt to send me back because I’m doing nothing in Johannesburg. She tells them to leave us alone.

I remember one day we had nothing to eat. My aunt called her friend, Mama Alice, who told her to send someone to fetch something. We came back with three cups of rice, a cup of cooking oil and a can of beans and mayonnaise. We cooked that rice and five of us shared that can of beans. But 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.

Tshabalira Lebakeng

THE UMASHONISA

It’s tough living in Joburg without a job. You need a job to maintain your lifestyle and to put food on the table for your family. Many people are separated from their families because they have to move to another place to survive and earn money to feed their children. There are so many unemployed people in South Africa.

And if you need money you can’t get a loan from the bank. You have to be employed and have a salary slip from your employer to get one. But umashonisa, loan sharks, only want your ID book and home address, which made it easy for me to get money when I was desperate. But I didn’t realise the danger of borrowing from umashonisas. I just knew I needed money urgently.

So there’s this guy called Mohammed in our neighbourhood. He is a loan shark and lots of people go to him if they need money. He only charges 10 to 20% interest. So a friend took me to Mohammed’s place and I borrowed R2 000, which I promised to pay back by the end of the month. Mohammed told me that if I didn’t pay he would come to my place and take whatever was worth the amount I owed. I didn’t stress, because I was expecting some money. But the end of the month came and the money I’d hoped to receive didn’t come. I couldn’t pay Mohammed.

On the 2nd of October I heard a knock on the door. I opened it and a large man asked me if I was Anthony. I said yes. I thought he was maybe looking for someone in the flats.

He introduced himself. ‘My name is Roba Litheka.’ Translated, that means – breaking bones. He said he was sent by Mohammed to collect money from me. I tried to explain that I didn’t have it yet. He didn’t want to know my story and said that I should come with him to Mohammed’s place. So we went back to Mohammed. He told me if I didn’t pay by the 5th of October they would take my big-screen television.

He said that we had to make a second agreement. Now the interest on my loan would go up from 10% to 30%, and I had to pay him by the end of the month. I was scared, so I said fine. He was dangerous. Luckily, at the end of that month I was able to pay him. I paid R3 500, but I never went back to Mohammed to loan money. I am done with umashonisas.

Anthony Mafela

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Tell us: Have you ever felt like an ‘unused tool in a busy workshop’?