THEY’RE forced to hitchhike for several kilometres and sleep at a petrol station to help put food on the table.
No one in the family works, so the kids have to sell handmade brooms to put food on the table.
The family of 26 grandkids aged between one month and 17 years live with their grandmother in Hluhluwe in KZN.
They sell the brooms in Richards Bay, about 100km away. Sadly, most of them don’t go to school.
A video of the kids recently went viral on social media after someone stopped two of them while they were selling the brooms.
In the video, the young boys said they were selling to buy mealie meal so their family wouldn’t go hungry.
Gogo Getty Ndlazi (60), a mum of seven – two boys and five girls – told Daily Sun that she started making brooms in 1987 after her husband died.
“The children don’t know what playing is. You’re taught about the family business as soon as you’re old enough to hold a knife and carve wood,” she said.
She said some of her grandkids hitchhike to Richards Bay after school on Fridays and sleep at a petrol station if they don’t make enough money to get back home.
“Although I give them two cellphones, I hardly sleep when they’re away. It’s painful to sleep knowing my grandkids are sleeping out in the open.”
She said the family relies on child grants to buy food.
“The grocery sometimes lasts for only two weeks and I add with my profit,” she said.
Getty gave Daily Sun permission to talk to the kids and take pictures.
Fanele Jobe (15) said although they knew they were putting their lives in danger, they had no choice as they had to provide for the family.
“Whenever I leave home I always think about our safety at the garage,” she said.
“Sometimes amaphara (street kids) ask if we have sold anything and we tell them no.
“We sometimes find them waiting for us at the garage, but security guards look after us,”
The gogo’s seven children have 26 kids among them.
One of her daughters, Khanyisile, said she dropped out of school in grade 3 to join the family business. She has four children.
“None of the fathers help me provide for the children,” she said.
She said she’d appreciate any kind of job.
After seeing the video of the kids, Human Settlements and Public Works MEC Jomo Sibiya visited the family on Sunday, 23 May.
Sibiya said the visit was aimed at kick-starting the construction of a house for them.
