A chance for real integration

Building a secure future for my son

I’M 43-YEARS-OLD and the mother of Siza, 15. I was born near Idutywa in the Eastern Cape.

After matric I wanted to do nursing but there was no money at home so I came to Sea Point about 20 years ago. My roots and my roof are here for the rest of my life, and for my son as well.

When my son was four I fetched him from my mother because I need him to live with me. It’s dangerous in the township and I’m scared to even visit my sisters.

Sea Point is expensive, you are working only for your room. We share a room, which we divide with a cupboard. There’s no privacy but it is a place where my son can grow up safely. He’s in Grade 10 at Sea Point High and doing well. When I can’t find him, I know he’s playing soccer near the beach.

After my son finishes matric, my dream is to train to become a nurse. Meanwhile, I am a nursing assistant and caregiver in an old age home. God gave me a gift for working with dementia patients.

You need to put yourself in their shoes to understand and be open to them. We have healers in my family. My mother was a poor woman and uneducated but she was the midwife in rural areas and my two sisters are nurses at Mowbray Maternity.

When I retire, I want to be one of those Sea Point elders safely pulling my shopping cart to my own place, a place I can call my son’s home.

PICTURE: JEFFREY ABRAHAMS Protesters in the city demonstrate during last year’s efforts to stop the sale of the Tafelberg site in an aim to have the land used for low-cost housing.