Thursday, January 11, 2007

Bitter poverty, unemployment has poor down in the dumps

from The Herald, South Africa

By Tabelo Timse

POVERTY and unemployment have forced people, even children, from Port Elizabeth to seek food and shelter at the Gelvandale rubbish tip.

Patricia Hermans, a mother of five, said she had been coming to the tip for the past three years because she could not find a job.

A welder by trade, Hermans said when she did not have food to give to her children she had decided to go to the tip.

“I sit here so that I can get something for the pot. Sometimes good Samaritans come by and give us food, but most of the time there is no food. But today there was a fishery that brought raw fish and sometimes other people have brought vegetables and bread,” she said.

Denzel Maritz said he had moved to the tip permanently four months ago after he was kicked out of his parent‘s house by his brother.

He said he lived inside unused drainage pipes next to the tip. “I had no choice because I didn‘t have a roof over my head. Here at least I can sleep inside the pipes.”

He said he had no other choice as he did not want to commit crime to make a living. “Although it is not a healthy environment, at least I live in peace. I make a little money helping people to unload their rubbish bags,” he said.

Although people lived at the tip, Maritz said, most of them did not eat out of the rubbish bags, and only ate food given by people and non-profit organisations such as Daily Bread.

He said he was skilled in painting, paving, bricklaying, upholstery and cabinetmaking.

“We are all brought here by poverty and unemployment. We are here because we had to make a choice between starving to death and staying alive.”

Sheldon Meyer said about 30 people scavenged through the rubbish every day.

“You will be surprised what people throw away. Most of the clothes I wear I get here. I even found a damaged cellphone and repaired it myself. I have also found takkies,” said Meyer.

Bevan Hector, 18, said he had stopped going to school in grade seven. “I only have a mother, who is unemployed. She could not afford to send me to school, so I had to find a way of making a living.”

He said sometimes entire families came to the tip to look for food.

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