Groundup Photo: Thamsanqa Mbovane
Lonwabo Jantjies from ward 46 in KwaNobuhle, Uitenhage spent the night outside the post office so he could be one of the first people in line to collect a special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.
On Wednesday, he was among hundreds of unemployed people who spent most of the day waiting in a snaking queue to collect their R350 special grant.
“I arrived on Tuesday night at about 9 pm. I was number 22 in the queue. We slept next to KwaNobuhle Mall and we jokingly nicknamed each other the Sotho Tribe as everyone was armed with a blanket,” he said.
At midday, Jantjies, 34, was still in line but further back in the queue then he had hoped.
He described how excited and relieved he was when he got an SMS instructing him to collect the special grant he had applied for in May. He previously relied on piecemeal jobs and working as a barber.
By 4 pm the Post Office had closed and Jantjies had still not been helped. Scores of people still waited around, some preparing to stay the night again.
“I will have to sleep at the mall again tonight because the queue was too long. My girlfriend who is the mother of my two children is also unemployed. I am expecting a couple of hundred Rand as I have seen others being paid.
This grant will be a life-changer,” he said.
This story first appeared in GroundUp
