By Anita Dangazele
- A 47-year-old single mother of three wakes at 03h30 to buy maize and sell cooked corn to commuters.
- Another mother sells sheep heads and trotters, cooking some the night before so they are ready by morning.
Two mothers at one of Gqeberha’s busiest taxi ranks start work before the sun comes up. For both women, selling food is how they survive.
One of them is 47 years old and sells cooked corn. She wakes up at 03h30 when she needs to buy maize from the fresh produce market. She leaves home at 04h15 to get there by 5am when it opens.
“I quickly buy stock and head to the rank,” she said.
She starts a fire and boils the corn so it is ready when commuters rush for taxis. On quieter days, she packs up at 15h30 and goes back to the market to buy stock for the next day.
She is a single mother of three children. Her eldest is in matric. The other two are twins in Grade 10. All three receive the child support grant, but she said it is not enough.
“Everything is expensive and so I have to sell corn to supplement the money,” she said.
Next to her, another mother sells sheep heads and trotters. She buys them from a local abattoir, burns off the hair over hot coals until the skin turns golden brown, then washes and scrubs them clean.
“I cook some of them at home, the night before so that in the morning they are ready for the morning rush,” she said.
She has four children. Two work in retail. Two are married but do not have jobs. She also receives an old age grant but says it is not enough.
Both women work six to seven days a week, often more than eight hours a day. They are the main breadwinners in their homes.
Pictured above: One of the mothers at her food stall at a busy Gqeberha taxi rank.
Image source: Anita Dangazele
