“I am a South African. Both my parents were South Africans. But l have never had an ID. As a result, my life has not been easy,” says 63-year-old Thoko Nzimande. When she was 20, she decided to go to the city to look for a job. At first she settled in Durban, but for years she struggled to find work. Then she lived on a farm for a few years. Later she was offered a free lift to Gauteng.
She says in more than 40 years she has never raised enough money for a bus ticket to go home. She has lost touch with her family and does not know when she last spoke to them, or if any of them are still alive. “At first I thought l would manage without an ID, but with time life became even harder, as no one would employ me without one,” she says. Every day she sets out at 6am to collect scrap in and around Brakpan. She collects plastic containers and other recyclable material. She brings the material home at around noon and spends the rest of the day sorting it. “I make so little l can barely survive. I should be earning a pension but that is impossible without an ID.
“My health is slowly failing me. I am only grateful to have the small shack that l live in,” she says.
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