By Marvellous Matswimbo
As unemployment rate increases in the country, many people are forced to come up with different avenues of earning a living just to survive through the next day.
Many Cowdray Park youth in Bulawayo have resorted to filling potholes in the suburb’s pothole polluted roads and collecting tokens from Kombi drivers and other drivers using the roads.
Despite the scotching sun, Sanele Ndlovu (20) spends the whole day carrying sand from the nearby bush and covering potholes in one of the roads in Cowdray Park.
“At the end of the day l have to put food on the table, feed myself and also feed my family, so what I do is, l wake up as early as 7am with my bucket and my shovel and I start digging up the sand from the nearby bush area which l then use to cover the potholes”, said Ndlovu.
“I wasn’t lucky to go to school like other kids but this is the best l can do to provide for myself and my family. Sometimes l come here with a group of friends and we help each other then at the end of the day we share what we would have made”, he added.
Statistics from ZIMSTAT highlight that the country’s unemployment rate stands at 19% pegging the number of unemployed people at 3.3 million.
Simon Lunga, said covering potholes has helped them sustain a living and stay away from doing illegal deals just to make money.
“I can’t say this is the best place that l want to be in but at least l manage to make at least US$10 per day which is different from someone who would rob people at night just to get that money. We also get occupied the whole day such that we don’t even think of doing drugs and other unhealthy activities”, said Lunga
He added: “A lot of the drivers that use these roads do give us some tokens of appreciation because the roads are in poor state and we doing something about it, we are not only helping ourselves but people with cars who use these roads everyday.”
With the rain season having started, many roads in the city which were already in bad shape are becoming damaged even more. This has however paved a way for youths who are now earning a living out of covering those potholes.
One of the Kombi drivers in Cowdray Park said the boys who cover up potholes are of help to them even though the city council should be responsible for the work they are doing
“I applaud these boys for doing this, that’s why I always feel the need to give them something whenever l pass here. This is the city council’s responsibility but they aren’t doing anything about it, so we now trust other people to do the job for them”, he said.