EVERY morning, Rabekah Mokgele walks to the municipal dump site behind her shack to look for food, or her family will starve
Mokgele is among many residents of Tumahole in Parys in Free State who survive on collecting scrap metal and food from the dump site.
She who lives at the Mbeki informal settlement and comes to the site with her two daughters Julia and Emily. She said: "Poverty brings us here. Our children can also not find jobs. We are not here because we like it.
"Coming here is humiliating. I come with my daughters if they cannot find any piece jobs.
"My son is too ashamed to come so he stays at home. If I was ashamed, my family would starve."
Mokgele has been coming to the site since 2000.
Tumahole township has two squatter camps - Abazi-mele and Mbeki. Abazimele has about 75 households that share one makeshift tap.
One of the residents said: "The tap always leaked if it was working. We have been living here for about 15 years and have been ignored by the government."
Mbeki squatter camp has no running water or electricity. The residents have to fetch water from houses in the township. The owners of houses have resorted to locking their taps to stop them from fetching water.
Mokgele's friend, Mmabatho Tsotetsi, 62, who has been coming to the dump site for a year, said: "I come here because I do not have a job but I still have to feed my three children.
"I still have hope that one day I will get a job. It is very hard coming here and making little money.
"From the scrap metal, I collect between R10 and R60. That is not enough to live on. The butchery in town dumps meat here that is not fit to sell and that is what we also survive on."
When we visited the dump site, Mokgele and Tsotetsi were cooking cow udders.
"Nobody eats these things but we have to because otherwise we will starve.
"What saddens me is that every time there are elections, we vote but we do not get any services.
"Our houses do not have water or electricity but we still vote for this government. They have never done anything for us." said Tsotetsi.
Dump site their only hope of existence
EVERY morning, Rabekah Mokgele walks to the municipal dump site behind her shack to look for food, or her family will starve
Mokgele is among many residents of Tumahole in Parys in Free State who survive on collecting scrap metal and food from the dump site.
She who lives at the Mbeki informal settlement and comes to the site with her two daughters Julia and Emily. She said: "Poverty brings us here. Our children can also not find jobs. We are not here because we like it.
"Coming here is humiliating. I come with my daughters if they cannot find any piece jobs.
"My son is too ashamed to come so he stays at home. If I was ashamed, my family would starve."
Mokgele has been coming to the site since 2000.
Tumahole township has two squatter camps - Abazi-mele and Mbeki. Abazimele has about 75 households that share one makeshift tap.
One of the residents said: "The tap always leaked if it was working. We have been living here for about 15 years and have been ignored by the government."
Mbeki squatter camp has no running water or electricity. The residents have to fetch water from houses in the township. The owners of houses have resorted to locking their taps to stop them from fetching water.
Mokgele's friend, Mmabatho Tsotetsi, 62, who has been coming to the dump site for a year, said: "I come here because I do not have a job but I still have to feed my three children.
"I still have hope that one day I will get a job. It is very hard coming here and making little money.
"From the scrap metal, I collect between R10 and R60. That is not enough to live on. The butchery in town dumps meat here that is not fit to sell and that is what we also survive on."
When we visited the dump site, Mokgele and Tsotetsi were cooking cow udders.
"Nobody eats these things but we have to because otherwise we will starve.
"What saddens me is that every time there are elections, we vote but we do not get any services.
"Our houses do not have water or electricity but we still vote for this government. They have never done anything for us." said Tsotetsi.
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