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By Palesa Matlala
- Sechaba Molefe charges R70 per person, starts queueing at 5am and gets paid when pensioners arrive at the queue at 8am.
- Molefe started the job in 2022 in Dube, Soweto, and holds spots at Sassa offices, Home Affairs and medical facilities.
Sechaba Molefe, 23, wakes up at 3am every day to get ready. By 5am he is standing in line somewhere in Soweto, holding a spot for a pensioner. He charges R70 for the service and gets paid when the pensioner arrives at 8am.
He started doing this in 2022 when the Transnet-Phelophepa train came to Dube, Soweto.
“A lot of people come for health checks when the train comes but after a certain time and the number of patients seen, the doctors and nurses will cut the line,” Molefe said.
Patients were then asked to return the following day. That is when Molefe found a way to make money.
He now holds spots at retail stores on Sassa grant payout dates, at Home Affairs, Sassa offices and at other medical facilities.
“In a day I make about R500. People don’t want to wake up early and as winter approaches I will have more money,” he said.
Before this, Molefe had considered crime as a way to survive. He was arrested and released on warning.
“That was when I thought of holding the queue for pensioners,” he said.
He has no higher education and does not meet the minimum work experience required by most employers.
Statistics South Africa figures show about 5.8-million young people are not actively looking for work. The number of discouraged job-seekers who could not find work reached about 3.7-million.
For Molefe, it is about surviving and buying the very basic needs.
Pictured above: A queue of people.
Image source: Pexels
