Zimbabwe Refugee

A few weeks ago I first met a Zimbabwe refugee living on the streets of Cape Town. He seemed a gentle guy who was so shut down emotionally his eyes were nearly blank. He had arrived in Cape Town a month earlier from Johannesburg and has been living on the streets mostly near Sea Point. One night he was beat up and all his stuff was stolen including his Zimbabwe ID. He felt pretty hopeless about his future.

Growing up in Zimbabwe his parents were gold panners, his Dad died when he was 8, his mom left two years later and so he stayed in an orphanage in the village. He went to school but there was abuse (physically and I think sexually) from his sponsors. When the economic crisis hit Zim he couldn't afford to keep going to school once they started charging fees in foreign currency. He worked odd jobs when he could get them and eventually met a South African who told him to go to South Africa where he could easily get a job and make a life for himself (this isn't true though, unemployment is quite high in South Africa). He tried to apply for a passport but it cost $600. That is A LOT of money, which he couldn't afford.

Meeting a trucker in Zimbabwe he smuggled himself across the border by hiding in the sleeping quarters of the truck and crossing the boarder at night. He didn't like Johannesburg so his friend paid his train ticket to Cape Town.

Like nearly everyone I've met who've been on the streets here, he has a lot of anger about his past, he dwells on questions like: why didn't his extended family help him finish school? Why did his dad die when he was so young? Why did his mother leave him? When his sponsor died, why didn't the sponsor's family help him?

He is willing to do any kind of work and has dreams of having his own place and a family. He is currently trying to get papers from the Department of Home Affairs so he can be in the country legally.

He has some hope for the future now and his eyes are beginning to have a glint in them; he'll even cracks some jokes. He isn't on the street anymore and has a support network through the various organizations that work with street people and refugees.