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‘Democracy hasn’t done anything for me’

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The homeless youth say they have been forgotten by the government. Ngobe handsome Khumalo (19)  lives on the streets of Durban he that democracy has failed him.

Khumalo was raised in Waterloo in Verulam. The thing that made him end up in the streets is drugs, heroin. He started smoking drugs when I was still young.

“My mum she is very strict, the way she was angry. She told me that i must get out of my house. I must come back when i stop smoking drugs, so that’s why i’m staying over here. One day, a friend of mine told me that it’s something that makes you feel alive. When i tasted it, it opened my heart, I stopped being shy, I started being happy,” says Khumalo.

Khumalo rates South Africa’s democracy as red saying the country is in danger.  He suggests that the government doesnt care.

“People living on the streets, its life we treated like dogs. Like i have seen not even one person coming to help. Telling us that we can go to rehab or something. Theres no rehab for us, theres no social workers- they dont even come to help us cos they feel we look dirty and they dont treat you as a person,” says Khumalo.

 

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