A Pandemic, A Social Uprising, and an Environmental Crisis: 60something year old 4am hustlers and change.

                               

It is 5pm in May 2022, a minibus taxi with 15 people is making its way along the laidback marine drive, a busy beachy waterfront drive on the seaside suburb of Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth. My mind is wondering about the 2-hour gym session awaiting me while a senior lady (Mme-Maggy) sitting behind asks the driver to make it snappy. She has to catch a train that is leaving in 20min. The driver responds to let her know she will be getting off in 10min, she will make the time. However, she still has a quick stop before catching the 5:30pm train out of the city. She has to collect her stall possessions. We then learn that she is a street side trader with a fulltime job. Here, she is on her way from her formal employment as a domestic worker. She does this for 9hours a day, five days a week. However, before checking in at work, she sells vetkoeks, (Fried Dough) and coffee, from 5am until 7am every day.   

She wakes up everyday at 3am, to cook the days’ bakes, head to the taxi rank where she sells until 7am then pack her possessions, join the morning rush with other workers to one of the many wealthy, tree-lined, seaside and well manicure s
uburbs in the city. This story is not unique to the South African experience of labour, multiple hustles to make ends meet and early morning rising. In fact, South Africans are some of the earliest risers in the world. History reminds us of the separationist and segregation inspired past we have as a country. People of colour often find themselves residing at the periphery of economic opportunities thus long and expensive costs of commute. Any suburban bus-stop/minibus-stop/taxi rank tells stories of daily urban cross-town migrations. As a matter of fact, South African taxi drivers are often heard taking pride in being the foundation of the economy. The country cannot function without their 15-seater buses. 

Every day, thousands of women like Mme-Maggy make their way to taxi stops and ranks to set up stalls that contribute to their household incomes. Although spread out amongst different adult working age groups, most of these women are senior in age, being in their 60’s. Of note is the incredible role played by grandmothers as is recorded in South African scholarship, Umakhulu (Grandmother) as we are reminded by the scholar, Dr. Babalwa Magoqwana. Many people including the world-renowned Nelson Mandela, were raised by their grandmothers. Often, in making means of livelihoods, being a street hawker is a probable income stream. Women like Mme-Maggy often make use of these probable income streams to raise their children and grandchildren. With the ever-increasing cost of living, secondary and even third income streams are a normal way of living for Mme-Maggy and her generation. However, these do not have challenges of their own. From unsafe early morning walks to transport nodes, consistent unfavourable weather patterns to escalating costs of living, life experiences of these women remain at the periphery in the local, regional, and global discourse surrounding economic, environmental, and social divides. 

When the first corona virus breakouts took place 11 230km away, in Wuhan China. MmeMaggy and her colleagues at 4am selling coffee at a minibus rank did not anticipate that in a few months, their livelihoods would be threatened in ways they would have never imagined. South Africa rolled out one of the most stringent national lockdowns in modern history. Many of the nations’ most precarious, including street traders and hawkers lost their income streams overnight. This presents to us one of the most debilitating attributes of globalisation in the 21^st century. A global village is an impressive feast in the face of a hungry ferocious pandemic. Not only are the embarrassingly evident inequalities and wealth disparities further entrenched, but we begin to see growing social and economic turmoil. Although slow boiling, the eruption of this threat or deterioration of social and economic conditions tends to be felt and seen the world over. Instances of this has been witnessed in the 2019-2020 Hong Kong riots and the 2022 Sri Lankan uprisings. 

In South Africa, the 2021 July riots that took place in the provinces of Kwa-Zulu Natal and Gauteng, provided a first-hand experience, on a national scale, the debilitating impact of deteriorating social conditions and realities their economic ramifications often have. The cost of these riots were felt nationally with slight increases in particular commodities due to increased demand in affected regions of the country. The cost of bread (a South African staple) and fuel increased exponentially as the riots hindered various value chains in the country’s primary port of entry. To this day, some of the damages and looted areas are yet to recover. 

In April 2022, the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal, was hit by a series of devastating rainfalls that induced floods and landslides never experienced in that part of the country. Already recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, dealing with the lingering 2021 riot impacts, the region was dealing with a never seen before environmental crises. In a space of 2-years, A pandemic, Social uprising and environmental disaster racked havoc in one of the poorest regions in the country. We can only wonder, how, with conditions like these, many members of our society such as Mme Maggy, without the privilege of a work from home employment, were able to survive a nearly 70-day national lockdown.  Particularly with the majority of people in employment that has a No-Work/No-Pay policy.

Although now a national matter, South Africa’s green energy initiatives remain as the country’s best future investment. The world is changing, radically and fast. With this global change comes the need to realise and recognise some of the country’s long deflected and ignored demographical groups. Left out at the periphery of national policy discourses, it is now the time for women like Mme-Maggy to take centre stage. This in the face of growing costs of living, increasing catastrophic weather patterns and ever-present social turmoil. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has led to record high prices of cooking oil. A crucial component of the Fried Dough cooking process. With these costs, women like Mme-Maggy either have lost or are seeing little returns on their income streams. 

It is important to centre green policy initiatives in areas such as energy, food production and ecological preservation because when floods and pandemics hit, those who pay the ultimate price is frontline workers, street hawkers, health workers etc. By ensuring a green transition towards energy and food security, women like Mme-Maggy can continue to make ends meet. However, these policy initiatives require not just those on the receiving end of the burden, but those whose minds a swept away at the thought of impending 2-hour long gym sessions. 

Each and every one of us, in our many and unique ways have tremendous capabilities to create the change that we desire, change that is fair, considerate, and gracious. Change that is future orientated and sustainable. Change that is environmentally friendly and seeks ecological justice. Change that counters the deteriorating moral fibre of a society grappling with rape, unemployment, alcoholism, and climate change while looking the other way. It is this change from myself and those around me that will enable us to witness the bridging of divides in our home, South Africa, the region, and world.