Boyboy Skosana, 30, has been living on the streets of Durban since 2009, mostly in an alley behind a gym near the beachfront. A self-declared drug user, he vows he hasn’t mainlined for 11 months.
“I only smoke zol now. Promise.” He’s hustling, his days of washing cars outside the gym are over. COVID-19 has made his existence even more feral. When I spoke with him recently he was darting around the CBD running errands for tips. “Life is worse now. How am I gonna survive?”
Skosana gets meals at one of the recently erected city homeless shelters. “It’s ok my brother, we get something to eat but it is less. Only four slices of bread and one cup of porridge.” Food is one thing, laying your hands on drugs is difficult.
Skosana is grateful he quit. “My friends are suffering. I feel shame for them. They are spewing and shivering. It is like they are in a hospital.” Desperately addicted homeless people, he says, will do almost anything for a hit.
