By Buziwe Nocuze
- Lungelo Tengile got the job after he spotted a man washing bins near his Cape Town home and asked to help.
- Before this, Tengile sold chicken feet but stopped after extortionists threatened to kill him if he refused to pay them.
Lungelo Tengile, 35, from Cape Town was struggling to get by when he spotted a man washing bins in his area.
He walked up and asked the man how he started. The man said the idea came after he struggled to afford basic needs like toiletries. Tengile asked if he could help with anything.
The man said he did not need anyone. But he felt sorry for Tengile and, as someone who understood what it meant to have nothing, gave him a job delivering waste bins back to their owners after the municipal truck empties them.
The truck comes on Thursdays. Tengile wakes up at around 08:00 and is at the spot by 09:00, because the truck arrives at different times.
Even though his boss collects and washes the bins, Tengile helps with collecting too when he arrives early enough.
He earns R400 a month. He asked his boss to pay him at the end of the month rather than R100 a day.
“I asked him not to give me the R100 per day but rather give me R400 at the end of the month because I might not use it wisely if I get paid daily,” Tengile said.
Before the job, a neighbour had been feeding him. He has since bought the neighbour a 5kg pack of chicken to say thank you. He said he still wants to do something bigger for him.
Before the bin work, Tengile sold chicken feet. He stopped after extortionists demanded money and threatened to kill him if he did not pay.
“I stopped because I knew they were going to kill me,” he said.
Pictured above: Waste bins.
Image source: Pexels
