- Nyanga mother Zovuyo Jack sells sweets and chips at a taxi rank and saves part of a child grant to afford transport home.
- The 46-year-old domestic worker needs R8,800 for return tickets for herself and three children after missing last year’s trip because she lacked money.
A mother of three in Cape Town has stopped buying red meat, bread and cereal so she can save enough money to take her children home for Christmas.
Zovuyo Jack, 46, from Nyanga township, needs R8,800 for return transport to Tsolo in the Eastern Cape for herself and her three children.
She could not afford the journey last December and is determined to save enough this year.
Jack works as a domestic worker two days a week. On her days off, she sells sweets and chips at the Bellville taxi rank to make extra money.
“The money I earn for the two days I work doesn’t cover my bills, that’s why I decided to do something else on the free days I have,” she said.
She is also putting aside money from one of her children’s social grants to help pay for the journey.
But even with all the sacrifices, she is struggling to save enough.
“Rising costs are affecting most of us. We cannot eat what we wish to eat and cannot travel to the Eastern Cape as we want because the transport money is too much,” she said.
“Last year we didn’t go home because I didn’t save enough.”
The R8,800 covers only the return transport for the family. Jack still needs money for clothes and food.
Her brother sometimes helps by paying for one child’s transport and buying clothes.
Every rand counts in Jack’s household.
She spends R42 on return transport when travelling to work or to the taxi rank.
Some days, she stays home instead of going to sell sweets because she wants to save the taxi fare.
At home, the family has changed what they eat.
Jack buys food that can last the whole month. Instead of red meat, she buys beef liver to serve with rice, samp or pap.
The children sometimes eat leftovers for breakfast because she no longer buys cereal.
“It is not only red meat and bread that I have stopped buying; it is a lot of things, including cereal. We normally eat leftovers in the morning,” she said.
Jack is not the only one struggling to put food on the table.
James Soganga, chairperson of the Qhakaza Disability Group, said more people are turning to the organisation for help.
The group initially planned to focus on helping people with disabilities but has found that many people without disabilities also need food assistance.
“We have realised that most able-bodied people need assistance. The cost of living is high for everyone; it doesn’t matter whether you are able-bodied or not, we need each other,” Soganga said.
He said the number of people needing help continues to grow.
For Jack, the hope is that her small business, domestic work and months of saving will finally be enough to take her children home this December.
