2. We met three elderly women in the township
of Alexandra, commonly known as ‘Alex’. Alex is
located just next to Sandton. It consists mainly
of shacks and have very small streets. It is said
that Alexandra is one of the poorest communi-
ties in Johannesburg. With very high percent-
ages of unemployment and children who drop
out of school. Most of the kids drop out of
school from the age of 9 years and high rates of
pregnancies. This community has elderly wom-
en like any other community. These elderly
women are mostly the ones that take care of
their grandchildren because you will find that
these children’s parents are working or in most
cases their parents have passed on and now
the grannies have to take care of them. Most of
them depend on their pension fund and col-
lecting recycling material, such as boxes and
bottles.
The following is the story of the three ladies.
The first granny we met was Mrs Nomakula
Joyce Masupa. Mrs Masupa is about 75 years of
age and she has 3 grandchildren, whom two of
them are still at school (one is in grade 10 and
the other one is in matric).
3. ). The eldest of the three is working. They are all
males and they stay in a separate shack just
next to hers, for privacy reasons. She does not
have any grand-daughters. Her grandsons are
the only people that assist her with anything
she needs. If it happens that at night she needs
something or if she is sick, she blows a whistle
to her grandsons to come and assist.
Moreover, Mrs Masupa is a pensioner but she
also has sells cigarettes, sweets and snacks as
way of generating money to help her grandchil-
dren go to school. She is passionate about edu-
cation and she also mentioned that her wish is
that her grandchildren finish school so that they
can provide for themselves as she is now very
old. As mentioned above that she sometimes
gets sick, Mrs Masupa has arthritis and she reg-
ularly goes to the nearest clinic for her medica-
tion.
The second grandmother is Mrs Nomusa
Mdlalose. She is 78 years old and she stays with
her unemployed son and five grandchildren
4. . Out of those five grandchildren, three are going
to school. The son is not working and he is the
one that takes care of the granny as the eldest
grand-daughter is hardly home.
Mrs Mdlalose stays in a very small shack that
her son built for her. It is upstairs as there was
no space to put the shack on the ground level.
Moreover there is no running water and no toi-
let. They use the stairs to fetch water and access
the outside toilet. The stairs that they are using
are slippery and the support structure is not
strong at all. The shack is so small that things
have be moved to space for everyone.
As mentioned above that Mrs Mdlalose’s son
built the shack, he managed to separate the
shack into two rooms for his and the granny to-
gether with the grandchildren. They cook out-
side because there isn’t much space in the
house. The house need renovation because the
material used is up to standard as most of the
things used to build the house are man-made.
Mrs Mdlalose has diabetics and she regularly
goes to the nearest clinic for medication
5. .She is the breadwinner because her eldest son
is unemployed and the two eldest grandchildren
are school drop outs. It is also said that Mrs
Mdlalose regularly goes to find food in the dust-
bins for her family.
The third grandmother is between the ages of
65 to 70. She stays with her two grand-
daughters, one of them has two children. She is
the only breadwinner and they stay in a shack of
which they are renting. She pays R600, 00 per
month. Moreover the granny collects boxes on
the streets and takes them to a recycling cite.
6. These are some of the pictures we took from Mrs Masupa’s house. As you can see, the
door is made up zinc at the bottom and its not so safe because the ends have sharp end.
7. Next are the pictures we took from Mrs Mdlalose’s house. The first picture is from the roof top and the
second picture is where the family cooks. They prepare their food outside because there isn't much space
in their house.
8. The above pictures are from the last granny Ntombi met. She lives in a very tight shack.
