Tough circumstances forces young man to live on the street
NORWOOD – Sifiso Mgomezulu, who is a beggar on the corner of Park and Pretorius streets in Norwood, said difficult conditions at home drove him to go and make a living on the streets.
Mgomezulu lives in an old house in Berea with other beggars but he visits his two uncles who are in Alexandra.
He grew up in Alex with both his parents, but after his father passed away in early 2003, everything changed because he was the breadwinner.
“God has his way of doing things. After my father died, things became difficult. My mother is still alive but she is old, she can’t work anymore,” he said.
He added that he felt like he was being abused by his family after his father passed on because his father had loved him the most.
After his father passed away his mother and the rest of the family relocated to Soweto and in the process, he ended up losing all his personal documents.
The 24-year-old dropped out of Eastbank High School in Alexandra in Grade 11. “I started begging on the streets after I left school when I was 16. When you are in such circumstances you get tempted easily into doing bad things and you end up meeting the wrong people,” he said.
“I want to go back to school and continue studying but it’s difficult.”
However, Mgomezulu said he had not given up on life and hoped that one day someone could help him go back to school. “I don’t want to do piece jobs, I want to go to school and get a qualification and have a sustainable life and be able to support my family,” he said.
Despite wanting to go back to school, Mgomezulu admitted that it was going to be difficult as he now had tuberculosis and had been taking medication for the past three months.
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“I take treatment from the clinic in Alexandra every six days and I can no longer walk long distances. I have to generate enough money for food and transport by the robots every day.”
Growing up, Mgomezulu wanted to be a mechanical engineer, but now those dreams seem shattered.
“People do help me with food and money but no one has tried to help me with going back to school. I just want enough money to survive and feed my family,” he concluded.
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