Dennis Gordon is 50 years old, and has reached a point in his life where he feels that there really isn’t any other option available to him. He’s been walking the streets, knocking on doors and visiting businesses in hopes of finding a job. Anything would do. When you stop next to him in Viljoen Street, you can even ask to see his curriculum vitae, which he carries with him everywhere.

“People tell me that they’ll have something for me tomorrow morning and that I should come to them then. When I get there, they say the owner isn’t there, or offer some other excuse,” Dennis said, adding that it has happened so often in the past few months that he feels completely dejected.

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Dennis was a car salesman for most his life. When the economy hit a downturn a few years ago and he noted that people started having difficulties getting vehicle finance, it became more difficult for him to make a living. He’s been out of work since the beginning of the year, and simply no one wants to take him on.

Right now, his children pay the rent for his small, one-bedroom home, which he has to share with his mother.
His children all live in other cities, and he unfortunately has the massive responsibility of caring for his elderly mother who suffers from hypertension and diabetes, among other things.

“In the last five months, I’ve had meat four times. The most expensive thing for us is food, because food prices are really high right now. We eat packet soups three times a day, every day,” he explained.

Dennis believes that he and his mother need at least R200 a day, but claimed that he makes an average of just R100 for an entire day of standing at the traffic light. But, he is somewhat positive, saying, “Krugersdorp’s people are actually very friendly. Sometimes someone might have something bad to say, like telling me to go get a job in an ugly way. If it was that easy, I would have a job right now.”

If something doesn’t change drastically in the town, it seems that Dennis will have to continue asking kind-hearted passers-by for money, and he’ll very likely be joined by more and more people who suddenly find themselves in desperate circumstances. As we made to leave, he became emotional, saying, “This is not my idea of what my life would be like.”