“My son will graduate because of the money from the waste pickers”
It may not seem like much to others, but the money she makes from selling food to waste pickers at the New England Road dumpsite in Pietermaritzburg has allowed 45-year-old Gugu Yengwa to pay for her son’s education at the University of KwaZulu Natal.
Yengwa has been selling food and cigarettes outside the dumpsite for 23 years. Her son Sanele, 23, is now in the final year of a Bachelor of Science degree, thanks to the money his mother makes. He hopes to graduate next year.
Yengwa was among those who supported the waste pickers when they protested last month against moves to stop them working on the dumpsite.
She sells her chicken stew and beef curry, with uphuthu and rice, for R20 to truck drivers (because they are working) and for R15 to waste pickers (because they are unemployed). She buys her ingredients in town and says she makes about R300 a day. She says she has made friends with some of her customers. “Most of them are the waste pickers and the delivery truck drivers.”
While GroundUp was interviewing her, delivery truck drivers were hooting and some drivers calling her by her name. “Three hundred rand I make a day goes a long way. To some it might sound like money for cosmetics but to my son it goes a long way in his university fees. With that I am able to be a responsible mother to my son. He knows where the money comes from,” says Yengwa.
She wakes up at 5am and cooks for her unemployed husband.
“I make sure that when I leave home my husband has something to eat.”
She has two sons, the younger one still in high school.
“I am not educated and I don’t want my children to experience the same thing. That is why I fully supported the waste pickers when they protested not so long ago. They were fighting for their rights and I would have been affected. I was behind them and I will be always behind them no matter what happens.
“I consider myself lucky because the municipality granted me the permit to sell my food here. I’m also lucky because there is no other person who sells in this spot, so there is no competition,” she says.
Yengwa says she grew up seeing people going to the dumpsite. “To do something different I decided to sell food instead of being a waste picker. I survive because of those waste pickers.
“I have also developed a good relationship with some of the people who come to deliver or throw things away. Some of them leave their items with me to sell for them. I have been there for a long time so they trust me.
“I am a happy mother and I am proud that I have produced a graduate from something that is looked down upon ,” says Yengwa.
“My son will be the first graduate in the family because of the money from the waste pickers.”
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