“I don’t do this for fun” - Road-side window cleaner

| Nokubonga Yawa
“I don’t do this for fun.” Photo by Nokubonga Yawa.

Many drivers get irritated with the youths who, without asking for permission first, wash their windscreens at traffic lights.

Avuyile Hola from Town Two, Khayelitsha was only thirteen when he started doing this. He’s still a teenager. “I’m not doing this for the fun of it, as many people say or think. At home I have only one parent working and there are too many people demanding money from this one person. I decided I would do this to cover some of my needs,” Hola said.

Hola wakes up every morning to clean people’s windscreens at the robots. When he started, his parents did not like what he was doing. In time though they had to let Hola do it because he kept on going back.

He makes about R80 or R100 per day, enough to last him until the following day. Hola dreams of having a job or his own business one day so he can have a better life.

“I choose to do this instead of involving myself with other activities that young people would choose. I know a lot of people think we do this for fun, but we are better than other young people that do robbery. I for one do not care what people say. I do this for myself because no one could afford to give me that R100 every day,” Hola said.

TOPICS:  Society

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