Umdloti broom seller Enoch Dlamini’s 33 year journey since losing mill job

When sugar mills shut, livelihoods vanish. Enoch Dlamini, once a fitter and turner at Mount Edgecombe Sugar Mill, knows firsthand what happens when mills close.

After losing his job in 1993, a year before the mill shut for good, he never found formal work again. Instead, he began crafting and selling brooms in Umdloti and surrounding suburbs, a trade he has relied on for more than 30 years. Now 72, Dlamini still feeds seven mouths in this way.

His story is a stark reminder of the uncertainty facing sugar workers today, with thousands of jobs at Tongaat Hulett again at risk if mills fail to begin crushing in April.

Making grass brooms is a skill passed on to him by his late mother-in-law. He buys his materials from a supplier in Hluhluwe and makes his brooms by hand.

The daily taxi ride from his home in Amaoti to Umdloti via Verulam costs him R62 return. He sells one or two brooms a day at R60 each, barely covering his transport costs. When he first started out, brooms were selling cheaply in rural areas, so Dlamini spotted an opportunity to fetch a better price in the suburbs and branched out.

With a bundle of brooms and a knobkierie that doubles as both a walking aid for his ageing knees and a security measure, a wide smile and a respectful demeanour, Dlamini has built a loyal client base in Umdloti. Some customers have in the past not only bought his brooms but also kept stock for him so he did not have to carry everything each day. Others have offered him meals or a Christmas bonus.

Over the years, he has witnessed Umdloti change. He recalls taking the shortcut down the stairs from Bellamont Road to the tidal pool on North Beach Road, long before the rows of flats were built and the stairs blocked by locked gates. He says he is amazed at how developers have transformed the sugar cane fields behind Umdloti into a growing urban area, where he now has a client who orders a large batch of brooms each year.

At the same time, he is saddened by how many long-time customers have left Umdloti or passed away. He says he misses how much easier it was to find and network with customers when the seaside village was still small.