Insights into Menzi's life
I was born in 1974/18/07 at Etladi
clinic Soweto. My grandmother’s name was Pinky but I never saw her. My father
was not involved in my life. I grew up with my uncle and aunt. They took me in
and I grew up with them and their 9 children. They took me to Harrysmith,
Ntabazwe.
It was there that my life became very
difficult as I was beaten and abused. I used to wake up in the morning run away
and eat at Unilibisa feeding scheme. When I was 12 I mixed with the wrong crowd
and started using drugs. We used to steal white people’s clothes and jewelry
and sell it to drug dealers. One time we jumped the phone line and went in to
steal and I found a gun. When I showed it to one of my friends, He was so happy. From there on things got
worse because we started robbing people.
We did bad things and
robbed people and we formed a gang called CMB. I was 14 by then and we used to
work for a certain man, stealing people’s cars, robbing soldiers of their guns.
The soldiers put out a hit on us to be killed. We ran away with my friend to
Soweto. There, we were doing things that shocked the community. We made a lot
of money selling cars along with my friend
Gerani. We even stole taxis and fought with a gang called Izinkabi. They
came at night attacking and shooting us. We did that for 4 years without
getting caught. When I was 18 I started getting injured as my friends and I
fought amongst ourselves. One of my
friends shot me in my foot as we fought for money. In 1993 we fought with
another gang called Krap and my two friends Kop and Monte Carlo died. We ran out
of money and went to Hillbrow. One time we broke in a house to steal a car but
unfortunately the owner heard us breaking in. My friend heard him and ran away
but I didn’t. He didn’t ask questions, He just opened fire and shot me once but
I stood up and ran. He shot again and I
fell but stood up and ran. He shot me 8 times until I couldn’t stand up
any more. When I woke up I was in hospital called General being tied and watched
by policemen. When my I woke up and came to my senses the first person that
came to mind was my girlfriend. I asked her to call a family member by the name
Sgonondo. When they came they were three, Sgonondo, Zonobham and Bhubesi. I
told them to make a plan for me to get out of hospital. They tied the policeman
to the corner in the hospital and locked Him in the toilet. They took me to another Hospital in Randfontein.
In Randfontein there was not much policeman presence so I started the life of
crime again. For me there was no other way to live. That is the only life I
knew. Things went sour there so I came
to Pretoria. When I came here I came to a new surrounding that I was not
familiar with. So I asked some people if there were any shelters here and they
said there’s one place they know called Koffiehuis. I came to Koffiehuis and I
was surprized that the people that were serving us were white people. In my
history I thought that white people were people only to steal from but I was surprised that they were serving us.I
had never seen that before. But unfortunately I started hanging out with the
people that were sleeping on the streets and drank alcohol and smoked a lot. I
couldn’t go a day without smoking. As time went by I kept on coming to
Koffiehuis to eat and receive teachings from them. It came to a point where I
got tired of the life I was living and gave my life to Christ. I am happy to
say that I am a child of God. I found a job working in a bar in the inner city.
However, it was difficult for me as the owner mistreated me, and hated my
faith. He also wanted me to lift heavy stuff and my back was still sore from the
gun shots that were fired at me. So I left and am working piece jobs here and
there. It is difficult for me because sometimes I am tempted to go back to the
life of drinking and smoking. But God is helping me now. The little money I
have I send back home in KZN to help my kids and my uncle. Life is difficult
but I’m happy now as I have God in my life. I would like to have my own
business of selling food on the streets. But I need gas, pots, chairs and a
tent and a a place to stay.
