Suzan Chala meets Funky Ngobeni, one of thousands of young children forced to support their family Every second day after school 13-year-old Joe Ngobeni fetches water for villagers from a well an hour and a half away. Funky his mother called him that charges 50c for 25 litres of water. He says he carries about 250 litres a day through the rocky landscape on a wheelbarrow borrowed from a neighbour. He offers a few tips he has learned from coming across wild animals and reptiles on his trips to the well, or to the mountains to fetch wood:”When you see a snake, don’t panic. Just keep out of its way and stand still,” he advises, and”stay as far away as possible from a monkey”. Funky is the head of his family. According to Statistics South Africa, more than 33 000 children between the ages of 10 and 14 are thrust into that position.
Unlike other children his age, Funky cannot look forward to getting gifts or new clothes, or eating a three-course meal nor can his six-year-old sister Melicia. The two have been living by themselves in a village near Pietersburg since their mother died in 1998 while she was”working in Johannesburg”.
Driving along the bumpy roads of Ga-Maja village, it is difficult not to notice the one-room house that looks as if it could be blown away by a heavy wind. The corrugated-iron sheets on the roof are not well tied. Although the chairs in what is supposed to be the kitchen are arranged like those in a bus, the house is well kept. A pink sheet serves as a wall between the kitchen and the bedroom, and the torn red and white curtains are bright and clean.
There is a tap in the road nearby, but Funky is not allowed to use it. When his mother fell ill, she stopped paying the chief the R10 monthly charge for access; the arrears have now mounted to R590, and rise every month. Funky found out about the death of his mother from friends.”I came back from school when they told me that my mother had died, and I didn’t believe them. But then I saw a group of people gathered here [at his home]. Then I knew my friends were not lying to me my mother was indeed dead.” His attempt to hide his tears fails. He was 10 years old when he took over the responsibilities of his single mother.”I was scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen to us. I didn’t know if we could survive without her.” His days of being a child and of playing his favourite sport soccer were over. Funky wakes up at 5am, summer or winter, and makes a fire outside to boil water and cook porridge, which is served with eggs from the 12 chickens he bought and breeds. His chores include bathing and dressing his sister. Melicia goes about with a fixed smile that looks forced; it cuts through the sadness. She had not known either of her parents very well. Her mother died of excessive diarrhoea, it says on the death certificate when she was three, and no one has information about her father. It is obvious Melicia feels safe around her brother; she clings to him like a tick on a cow. She uses her tiny hands to cover her face when she notices someone looking at her. Her big dry eyes could add to her beautiful face if they didn’t look so sick and tired.”I want to be a teacher when I grow up,” was the only thing she managed to say in the three days Ispent with them. Funky thinks Melicia learned to smile from her mother.”Before my mother got sick, she was forever smiling,” he says. “Even when she started getting sick, Ma would pretend to be fine, but I could see she was in a lot of pain. Each time she started looking ill, she went to Jo’burg, saying she was going to work. And every time when she came back, she was thinner than before”. Funky uses the money earned from fetching water to pay for food and for electricity that he uses only for lights.”I pay R10 and it lasts for less than a week.” He doesn’t have time to play because he has to help his sister with her homework and then do his own. “By the time I go to sleep which is usually around 8pm I am so tired it feels like dying a little till next day.” This he wrote in a poster in which he talks about his life. The only relative the children know is an aunt who cannot take them in because she is a single parent and has nine children. She works only twice a week as a domestic worker. The man who stayed with them while their mother was in Johannesburg disappeared after she died. Funky learned household chores through trial and error.”In the beginning the porridge would taste funny, but my cooking improved with time,” he says.”Doing the laundry was the most difficult, especially Melicia’s clothes. Her dresses get too soily and are difficult to wash.” Funky speaks eloquently. He expresses himself well in English, Sepedi (the language spoken in Ga-Maja) and Shangaan (his mother tongue). He says he likes talk-show host Felicia Mabuza-Suttle, whose poster is stuck on the wall together with one of Kaiser Chiefs player Doctor Khumalo.”Chiefs is my favourite team. I’ve seen some of their matches at a neighbour’s TV.” He could easily reach his dream of becoming a civil engineer if he continues getting the high marks he does at school. Regardless of the fact that he has both to concentrate on his studies and to help his sister with hers, he still outdoes his classmates and enjoys the subjects hated by many learners, mathematics and technology. His writing skills are displayed in the pages he keeps under his mattress which tell of his depressions and worries.”While I’m away [to fetch wood and water], I think about my little sister who is too keen to assist me with some household chores. This worries me a lot since she could burn herself as she tries to make fire or even cook.” He says the two chores he hates most are making fire and fetching water.”It’s difficult to make fire, especially in rainy seasons because I can’t make fire when it’s raining.” He says on such days, he relies on the mercy of a caregiver who drops in from time to time to see if he and his sister are”fine”; if he can’t make fire, he goes to the caregiver’s home and uses her stove. Funky’s weekends are spent doing his schoolwork and helping his sister with hers, and doing their laundry.”It’s better than on weekdays because at least I can play, even if it is not for a long time, but I can play soccer with my friends.”
Statistics South Africa notes that there are 183 708 children under the age of 19 serving as the head of their families