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Getting off the streets was a long journey for Malixole Sikhungo who has come full circle and now gives back to the homeless community.
Speaking at a community meeting on homelessness in Fish Hoek on Tuesday 23 August, Sikhungo recalled the days he spent searching for food.
“There were times that there were bad days and I would go search for food, but not that I necessarily didn’t have any money.
“I had R50 or R80 but I had to save it to feed my drug addiction. I went as far as scratching in the rubbish bins for food. I had a spot behind a school and I knew that was a place I could beg and get something. I would take that change and walk back to the foreshore.”
In 2008, Sikhungo joined a programme at the U-turn Homeless Ministries. He says the programme was instrumental in him turning his life around.
“I’m now part of the U-turn communications team, I just recently joined the communications team, but I’ve been part of the organisation for quite some time, for over 14 years.
“I was on the streets mostly in the Cape Town CBD and I stayed there for many years. I joined a U-turn programme in 2008. After completing the programme I worked at the local churches in the southern suburbs as a car guard. Every Sunday I was there watching the cars.
“Two years into that time I saved up some money and went to improve my Grade 12 subjects.
“When that went well, just a year later I enrolled at Unisa and I studied bachelor’s of law.”
While studying, he worked as a car guard at night and during the day he found work as a paralegal.
“Before I completed my degree, I secured myself a spot at an office as a paralegal and worked there for five years and I was still working as a car guard at church on Sundays.”
The graduate says he becomes quite emotional when he thinks of how far he had come.
“I have completed my degree with 10 distinctions and I get so emotional at times when I think of how far I have come and even if I meet some of my fellow homeless guys.
“I will ask how best we can help.”
The choices he made and where he now finds himself in life were made abundantly clear during a meeting with a former friend.
“On Friday, I saw a guy who tried to ask for something and I recognised him. We were together on the streets in 2008.
“I used to go with him to his lawyers because he was claiming from the Road Accident Fund and at the time, he was paid out around R300 000, but he is now still on the street.
“He is on the street and still doing the same things, begging and getting money. If I had not been given a chance or opportunity to join U-turn, I would still be in the same predicament.”
Debbie Cox from the Net, an organisation that uses a holistic approach to managing street people, says from her own experience as a former street person, the best way to help was not to hand out cash.
“As an ex-homeless person from Fish Hoek, I would like to say please do not give cash. A lot of our homeless out there are addicts or alcoholics.
“I am a recovering alcoholic and I have been sober for four years.
“Without the Net I would not be standing here today.”
Cox is currently a supervisor at the Net and assists homeless persons with a meal.
“I am a supervisor and house mother. We’ve learned through the years that it doesn’t always work to be sympathetic.
“Sometimes we have to get very tough and I know a lot of people don’t agree with it, but sometimes it’s the only thing that works.”
