Making Ends Meet!!!

by Nhlanhla Mbele

Beke le beke it’s what she’s been called nowadays. Though it’s something that used to dumbfound everyone in her residential area, it has lately become a norm. Cars of all brands and size flocking in and out one would have thought ‘amagumaguma’ fuel bandits had found a new post for their illegal operations. But well it never made sense at all, same cars every week, same faces, or maybe it was special fuel who knows. They say don’t judge the book by its cover but there was definitely something to judge by just looking at her.

Don’t get me wrong, no one is perfect, it’s only the unusual activity in the hood that kept me thinking when she burst out the gate. Big booty, cleavage you name it, everything was in order, a thousand dollar worth picture in auction I tell you. I lost my mind for a while. Wild thoughts shadowed my soul and all I saw in my vision was what made the man in fancy cars flock like headless chickens into that house. Looking at her one would wonder why she had to allow all those man to devour on her. Did she like it perhaps? All she could say was that ‘at the end of it all I have to make ends meet’,

One might think she is out of her mind, prostituting at 21 in the presence of her 2 year old child. Goodness me! The whole community on her neck. Calling her names, labeling her a misfit. But guess what? "None of that bad talk put food on my table or paid my rent at the end of the month."

Maybe instead of casting the judgmental eye, society can come up with initiatives that can help her and other girls in their communities sustain themselves. I am not judging but this can't be a good environment to raise a two year old. At least if they had tried giving her a job or better plan to sustain her and her child.

Putting myself in her shoes, the load was just too much for me to bear. At 21 I recall I was still at school, getting everything on a silver platter, no side hustle, no worries. But her! Trying to look up for her family back in Thekwane and her child has gained her a societal misfit label. She doesn't care about the naysayers. She is glad she can make the ends meet. Believing that she is not the only one doing it because some do it behind closed doors has strengthened her zeal for the hustle. We have different hustles, “and what I do with my body has nothing to do with anyone. I’m happy that I don’t have to bother anyone with anything and the people who are bad mouthing should be appreciating that I’m also trying" she said confidently.

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