By Buziwe Nocuze
- Nomfundo once earned R1,000 a day at Somerset taxi rank, but now makes as little as R200 after routes were closed.
- She has cut family meals from three a day to two, and now buys groceries in small portions instead of bulk.
At 3am every morning, Nomfundo Bekameva wakes up to cook food for commuters at the Somerset taxi rank in Khayelitsha.
She makes vetkoek, russians, steamed bread, muffins and scones – food that once brought her enough money to feed her family of five.
But the recent war between two taxi associations in Cape Town has crushed her business. After passengers, drivers and owners were killed, the Western Cape government closed the routes.
For street vendors like Nomfundo, who depend on busy ranks, the closures have been devastating.
“Before the routes closed, I would make about R1,000 a day,” she said. From that, she bought groceries, electricity and even funeral cover.
Now she is lucky to make R200. She pays her helper R20, half of what she used to, just to carry her food to the rank.
“With the little I get, I buy 1kg of this and that so we can eat,” she said.
Her family has cut meals from three a day to two. Breakfast is porridge, and dinner is sometimes rice with potatoes and pilchards.
“Sometimes I wish I could go to the shop with a trolley full of groceries, but it is only a wish,” she said.
Nomfundo says she keeps going because of her family. But if things don’t improve soon, she fears she will have no choice but to ask for help.
Pictured above: Street vendors at a Cape Town taxi rank.
Image source: Buziwe Nocuze
