Durban vendor overcomes addiction with books
Magimbela, who hails from Soweto, Johannesburg, arrived in Durban in 2016, looking for a fresh start in life.
MAYVILLE resident and book vendor, Mxolisi Magimbela runs a pop-up shop at the Denis Hurley Centre (DHC), where he can be found each day between 08:30 and 16:00. Magimbela, who hails from Soweto, Johannesburg, arrived in Durban in 2016, looking for a fresh start in life. He has been selling books for three years. Before he became a vendor, he was living on the Durban streets, where he grappled with substances and addiction.
“On the street, there are many challenges – not having money for food, losing documents and being stuck out in the rain. I started taking drugs because I was under so much stress,” he said.
Desperate for an income, Magimbela started collecting scrap to sell at scrap yards. That’s when he discovered the Denis Hurley Centre, in 2017.
“They introduced me to social workers and I started to attend classes to help me quit drugs. I started selling newspapers with DHC. I was earning R10 or R12 a day, but I was still using drugs at that time,” he said.
Determined to turn his life around, Magimbela’s journey to sobriety spanned over the next four months.
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“I would go early in the morning to classes to help me quit. Sometimes I’d manage to go a day without taking drugs. Slowly I started to get my life back from drugs. I started to get myself involved with other things to stay busy. I am so proud of myself, when I look at where I am now. I have worked hard to come back again. It took a while to learn to ignore those cravings,” he said.
Joining the Street Lit programme has restored Magimbela’s sense of community.
“Now I am accepted by people. Before people would see me as a criminal and start grabbing their bags when they saw me. I was almost beaten up a few times. Now I have friends and there are people who will listen to me and let me tell my story. I am back on my feet, my own two feet,” he said.
Working as a book vendor has also sparked Magimbela’s interest in a sales career. “I am not highly educated, but I would like to further my education and study sales and become a salesman,” he said.
For now, he enjoys catering to his customers at his book stand. “I normally work with customers. When they ask for a certain book, I look for that book. Cook books are popular. I look at the condition of the book when I price the books. There are books in good condition and bad condition. I price them at R10, R20 or R40,” he explained.
When he is not selling books, Magimbela enjoys creating music.”I used to write music and sing. I play RnB and hip hop. For now, I am not on social media because I don’t have a smartphone. I used to call myself White Wolf when I set up social media, I’ll use that name,” he concluded.
Unexpected joy as part of the Street Lit programme, book vendors are given the opportunity to sell their books at the door of popular events. Recently, Magimbela sold his books at St Thomas Church in Musgrave when the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra (KZNPO) performed a show.It was an eye-opening experience for the director of the Denis Hurley Centre, Raymond Perrier, when drove Magimbela back to the centre after the show.
Also read: Street Lit – A new chapter begins
“I know that the work feels especially tough at the moment – and the new uncertainties around Covid-19 don’t help. Mxolisi was deployed to sell books at a pop-up concert with the KZNPO. He did not finish until 21.30.
It was wet and he was far from home, and though he had sold a few books, he had not made a fortune. I was anxious that he would be despondent. Far from it!
He bounced into the car and immediately said: ‘I have never had an experience like that in my life before. I have never seen a church as beautiful as that. And I have never heard music like that’. We take so much for granted. And we are rightly focused on giving people the basic means of survival. It is good to know that we can gladden the heart and soul as well,” said Perrier.
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