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Dancing For Coins

Southbroom is a small beach town about two hours south of Durban, KZN, South Africa. In December 2019, just before Covid-19 arrived, we were at the beach pub for a Durban curry and a beer. Three young men, two dancers and a drummer, were doing the rounds busking. Largely ignored by the pub’s patrons they moved their performance to a group of middle class beach-goers lounging on the concrete beach furniture by the salt water pool.

I wondered how many times a day these young men had to perform, how many people gave them a couple of rands, five or ten if they were lucky every now and then. How they managed to inject such energy into each performance given the general indifference. How they got by in the off-season. How are they managing now there are no tourists?
 
An hour later they were sitting on the grass to eat their own lunch.
One loaf of white bread and a 2 litre bottle of soft drink shared between the three of them.

Cost of loaf of bread R13 // 1.5 litre soft drink R16 // $USD1 = R15
The official unemployment rate among youth (15-34 years) was 46,3% in Quarter 1 2021.
 
The Special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress amount is R350 per month, recipients must be unemployed and not receiving any other grants.
Average rental in an informal settlement is R450 a month for a one room dwelling approximately 15 m² made of wood and corrugated iron with dirt floors.
 

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