Struggling on the city’s streets
As the unemployment rate increases, more and more people find themselves unable to afford food, clothes and even rent.
POLOKWANE – As a result, the number of people living on the city’s streets has risen.
These people often go through waste gathered from households around the Ivy Park and Penina Park areas searching for food or scrap metal to sell. For them, the saying, ‘There is no place like home’ refers to a street corner, an abandoned building or under a bridge.
To these homeless people, a pile of rubbish holds the promise of food on their plates. John Dibetle (32) explains how he was orphaned at a young age. According to Dibetle, his parents died when he was young and he came from a family that was already poverty stricken. His chances of finding employment or going to school were diminished. Now he is a father of three and says he has not seen his children, who reside in the Groblersdal area, for over five years now.
“I am up early each morning and always find scrap and other things in the garbage between Penina Park and Ivy Park. Most of the time we have to search desperately to find something worth selling,” Dibetle explains.
He says searching through rubbish bags presents hope to make money as they sell anything worth a few rand to local scrap yards either in the CBD or in the Ladanna area.
