Sowetan grandmother shares her struggles with Motlanthe

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An elderly woman from Diepkloof, Sowet, has decried the lack of jobs and the poverty that bedevils the township.

Simangele Mbatha-Makhubo says children resort to drugs due to unemployment.

She says her household is dependent on her grant. She was speaking to former ANC Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, who was in the area campaigning for the governing party ahead of the May polls.

“The situation we are living in [are] dire, Mr Motlanthe, especially when it comes to poverty. Our children are not working, Mr Motlanthe. Can we please have jobs? Our children go to school and graduate but after that they sit in their gowns, sit with their education… For instance, in my household, we just buried one of the children in July. We found him in the veld after he got lost. The pension I receive, the grant I receive for the elderly, we share it and we are many in this household. We are all dependent on it. Other times we sleep without eating.”

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