The coalface of poverty
RISKY: STEALING PIECES OFF GOODS TRAINS
Fana* and Thabo* are coal hunters. Every day, they climb onto the goods trains transporting coal along the Brakpan-Springs route to fill up sacks with stolen coal.
They risk a fall from the train or an arrest by the security guards who patrol the line. But they say they have little choice.
Some of the coal they take home to their families, some they sell in townships and informal settlements.
The two friends know the exact train schedules and prefer working during the night, or in the late afternoon, after the security guards have gone home. They used to climb onto trains during the day, but railway security has tightened up.
They can fill five or six sacks each during a night, they say. GroundUp watched Fana and Thabo climb onto a goods train that had just stopped.
After collecting coal, they threw the bags out on the other side of the train and jumped off. Before long, the two were halfway up a bridge on their way to hide the coal. By the time they came back to the railway line, the train had moved on and they could wait for the next.
At about 5.45pm, Fana and Thabo started walking beside the railway lines along the Springs-Brakpan route. One of them carried a backpack with empty sacks in it. Their clothes and faces were dirty from coal dust.
They picked up bits of coal which had fallen off goods trains. They use the coal to light fires during the night as they wait for trains to pass.
Fana said: “We give some coal to our mothers and sell the rest for R50 a bag, but the price is up for negotiation.”
Fana, who lives with his unemployed mother and two siblings, said he went to school up to Grade 10. Thabo lives with his grandmother and younger brother. He finished matric but has not got a job.
Both use the money they get from selling coal to buy food. Other coal hunters sell it to fuel a nyaope addiction, like 19-year-old Themba*, who lives under a bridge.
* Not their real names
– Republished from GroundUp.org.za