CHILDREN RAISING CHILDREN: The heart-breaking reality of Bizana teenager

Children are the epitome of innocence requiring just love, care, protection and guidance, free to laugh and play. These are not just privileges but are the rights of every child as enshrined in the constitution of the country. However, for a poor and underdeveloped town such as Bizana the basic rights of children in this place become a privilege and one many still do not enjoy.

At Nyanisweni a village in Bizana, Amanda Zangwa a nineteen 19-year-old high school leaner has been forced to give up her childhood after her mother left for Port Shepstone in 2019, Leaving Amanda solely responsible for the family.

Rising Dawn Reflections a Non-Profit Organization in Bizana has identified the struggles of this youth headed home and brought their plight to light.

“We were shown this family and we just could not turn a blind eye to such a situation, a 19-year-old grade 10 leaner taking care of five younger siblings staying in a difficult situation living in a shack where if you are inside, you can see outside without opening a door or a window. The inside of the shack looks like a place where animals live and not human beings. All along when I passed that place, I had no idea that there are people leaving there until a community leader told me there are children residing in there. We are trying to help them, and our urgent intervention is to get them out of that pace and rent them a proper place while we try to get them a permanent proper home.” Said Odwa Mbangwa manager of Rising Dawn Reflections.

Amanda says she is the oldest of her siblings and has no choice but to take care of her siblings.

Leaving like this really hurts my feelings because this is a horrible way of living. Being inside such a shack is not different from sleeping outside because when it rains, we get rained on and everything gets wet. In this cold season we are always freezing cold because a poorly built shack like ours is not an ideal place for humans to stay in. – said Amanda Zangwa

In her teens she is already faced with the responsibility of raising her four 4 siblings as well as being a high school leaner. This young 19-year-old is raising her younger siblings who are aged 16; 11; 9; and 5 years old. They do not have birth certificates or any form of legal identification which means they do not benefit from any social grants.

For years, this family has lived in squalor in a dilapidated shack often going to sleep in empty stomachs. The flimsy shack they live in was used as a goat’s kraal and needs constant repairs that they cannot afford.

Our mother sometimes sends us money for food, the most she has sent is R400 for all 5 of us, we get what we can with the money and when the food runs out, we ask for food from neighbors who sometimes also do not have anything to give us. – Said Amanda.

Nompumelelo Zulu the mother of these children stays in Port Shepstone in KwaZulu Natal. She says she has sacrificed raising her children for peace. According to Nompumelelo Zulu the father of her children was abusive, and she has left him to go work for her children.

“My children grew up in Port Shepstone under my care. The situation in our home was bad because the father of my children gave me problems whenever he was drunk. His family requested that I send the children to Bizana for safety, I also joined the children and stayed with the in-laws. We then moved to the shack where the father of my children joined us, and he remained abusive. I used to sleep outside because I needed some peace. I ended up leaving for Port Shepstone in search of jobs so I can feed my children.” Said Nompumelelo Zulu.

Zulu further explained that she only earns R1200 a month working as a domestic worker she says she sends money to the children and rents a place for herself.

Amanda Zangwa the young head of the family is in grade 10 and has a responsibility of mothering her siblings as well as doing her schoolwork on time. Despite the cards life has dealt her Amanda is according to her school principal doing exceptionally well in her academics.

It is the first time for us as the school to hear that Amanda is leaving in such circumstances. I know the shack they live in, and I even once asked if there are people living in it and I never knew that it is our leaner living in such a place because if we knew the School Based Support Team would have intervened. – Said Mr. N.C Mditshwa school deputy principal of Nyanisweni high school.