By Buziwe Nocuze
- The Khayelitsha woman charges R100 per child each weekend and plans to raise her rate to R150 from next month.
- She started the business to earn extra money and to protect children after some died in shack fires left unattended.
A Khayelitsha woman is running a childminding business from her home on weekends, looking after children while their parents are away.
She has been doing this for two years. She charges R100 per child but plans to raise her fee to R150 per child from next month.
“I needed an extra income because the money that I am earning as a domestic worker is not enough to cover my needs,” she said.
On some weekends she looks after more than five children. Grant payout days and month ends are her busiest times. She also looks after children whose parents work night shifts.
She charges an extra R50 when parents pick up their children late. If they agreed on a pick-up time of 10:00 and a parent arrives after that, they pay R50 more. Some parents give her a hard time about the extra charge.
Safety was also a reason she started the business. Children have died in fires while left home alone.
“There are kids who died while their mothers were out partying. She locked them inside a shack, and when she was called, she told community members that she thought she was not going to spend the entire night out,” she said.
Parents bring food for their children to eat before bed and in the morning. Parents of children in nappies bring their own nappies.
“My job is to keep their kids safe, wash and change them. Anything else that the child needs is their parents’ duty,” she said.
She earns more from her domestic work job than from the childminding business.
Pictured above: Children in Khayelitsha.
Image source: File
