Editor –
“Mealies, mealies, mealies,” echoed the shrill voice of the ‘selling makhoti’ in our street.
It is 8 o’clock in the morning. “Buy six; I want to make mealie bread with nice, double-thick, fresh cream and butter,” my other half requested. I humbly did the necessary, as I had not eaten mealie bread in a long time.
I paid R42 for six mealies and told the kind lady that she could keep the R3 change. Her smile was like the Drakensberg mountain on a sunny day.
I began to chat with her in my broken isiZulu and English.
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She told me she lives in a rural area near Weenen, and has four children and her elderly mother at home. Her husband passed on some years ago. She leaves home at 4am, walks about 1km and takes a taxi to Mr Smith’s farm.
Mr Smith charges her R4 per mealie and she buys 50. She happily pays R200 for the mealies and R20 taxi fare to Estcourt.
She gets off on the R103 and walks to the houses nearby. She carries 30 mealies on her head, and 10 in each bag in her hand and behind her back.
Later in the day, I had to go to town to buy the fresh cream for the mealie bread. While seated in my car outside a popular supermarket in town, I saw my ‘selling makhoti’ trying to sell the remainder of the mealies in her bag.
A fancy car pulled up alongside me and a lady got out in a hurry.
“How much mealies, ma?” she asked.
“Very fresh, R7,” replied my ‘selling makhoti’.
“Haibo, so very expensive. Make it cheap. It is R6 each at another shop. Ai, don’t worry, I will get it from there.”
The lady jumped back into her car and sped away.
This very interesting incident prompted me to write this story.
Assuming my makhoti sold all her mealies, she made R350 for the 50 mealies.
She paid R200 to the farmer and R40 taxi fare to Estcourt and back. At the end of the day, she made a net profit of R110.
With R10, she bought half a loaf of bread and one small juice. She returned home at 6pm.
She left home at 4am while the children were sleeping and returned home at 6pm to make a simple meal of phutu and maas for the family.
It was their only meal of the day.
South Africa celebrated Women’s Day recently. It is not only the affluent and famous women who are important though.
The ‘selling makhoti’ brings a cob of fresh mealies to your doorstep; she has mouths to feed and children to educate… And we still want to bargain with her. Please be kind to her.
Let us, in some small way, show our humanness – offer her a glass of water or cool drink, or maybe a sandwich.
I will do that from now on, and hopefully you too.
Her name is Florence Mkhize.
Anil Sookraj
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