[blindza] Blind beggars in JHB
- From: "Jacob Kruger" <jacobk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "BlindZA" <blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:35:57 +0200
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Subject: Blind cross border to make a living
The Zimbabwean, Zimbabwe
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Blind cross border to make a living
By NOWELL MARUFU, CAJ News Reporter
JOHANNESBURG - Blind people from Zimbabwe have taken to the traffic
intersections of South Africa as a way to make a living.
In a snap survey conducted by CAJ News, several blind men and women were
seen at busy 'robots' (or traffic lights) in South Africa's upmarket suburbs
of
Fourways and Sandton.
"Begging here pays us a lot more than when we beg at home. We cannot do any
other kind of job and begging is our only way out of the economic blues that
are biting Zimbabwe," said Joseph Ruzvidzo from Chegutu.
Ruzvidzo said they got free bus rides to Johannesburg from bus drivers who
were sympathetic to them because of their disability.
"The drivers understand our problems and they always give us free rides to
Johannesburg, provided there are not too many of us in one bus," said
Joseph.
He said they were also allowed to pass through both sides of the Zimbabwean
border and the South African border without too many problems.
On getting to Jo'burg, they sought the assistance of someone not blind to
take them to intersections.
"We pay the people who direct us around between R50 and R100 a day,
depending on what we will have raised," said another beggar, Ropafadzo
Taruvinga.
A driver from Tenda buses said that on month-ends it was usual to see
beggars going back home with an assortment of appliances like four-plate
stoves,
televisions and refrigerators.
Some months have seen hundreds of Metro police officers being deployed
around Johannesburg in massive blitzes to rid the city of beggars. The
decision
to pick up beggars was in response to officials receiving numerous
complaints from the public, pinpointing intersections where begging had
mushroomed.
A Metro police Captain, Mandla Madiba, said the reason why so many blind
beggars had cropped up at intersections around the city was because of an
influx
of blind people from Zimbabwe.
This was due to the fact that Jairos Jiri Colleges in Zimbabwe, representing
an association for the blind, had closed down and the people felt that their
only option was to come to South Africa and beg for a living.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/viewinfo.cfm?id=3723
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