The elections are fast approaching and we seem to be too busy to even taken notice of the homeless people we pass by in our streets every day. I decided to go out and just find out their views about the upcoming elections. I was lucky to bump into one at the Cape Town taxi rank and because he’s sweet like that, he squeezed me in to his hectic schedule.
Live Hi, what’s your name and where are you from, originally?
Homeless person: I’m Vuyo Bako, from Crossroads, a township just near Nyanga in Cape Town.
Live: Oh you have a home around Cape Town? Why are you here then?
Vuyo: I left home ten years ago and I was only 15 years old, because of circumstances.
Live: Circumstances?
Vuyo: Yeah, there were fights in my township back then. Guys from different sections fighting each other and I, somehow got linked to the death of a guy from a different sections to mine.
Live: Are you saying you killed someone?
Vuyo: I was young…
Live: So now you can’t go back home?
Vuyo: No, I can’t, I wouldn’t feel safe there. I feel safe here and the Harraway bridge in Woodstock is my home.
Live: How do you make means of living here?
Vuyo: Like any other person, I wake up early in the morning and come to work here (points the main taxi rank in Cape Town)
Live: And what do you do exactly?
(A taxi driver joins in)
Taxi driver: Vuyo helps us, he cleans our taxis and we give him food and sometimes money in return.
Vuyo: *laughs* Yes, they’re my bosses.
Live: Are you aware that the elections are fast approaching?
Vuyo: I do see people putting on posts on lamp poles around Cape Town
Live: Do you have an ID? Did you register to vote?
Vuyo: I do have an ID but I didn’t register to vote.
Live: Why?
Vuyo: Should I have?
Live: Yes, it’s your constitutional right to do so…don’t you know that?
Vuyo: I would never vote for a corrupt thief and selfish idiot.
Live: And that is?
Vuyo: Zuma
LiveMag: Who would you vote for?
Vuyo: Malema
LiveMag: Why?
Vuyo : Because he’s a “Ngwaza”
Interview by Sinzao Mkoko
Images by Onele Liwani
