Cascoland Journal

Sunday 5 March

Zim Sali was born in 1978 in a village near Port Elizabeth (Eastern Cape). He came to live in New Crossroads two years ago. After finishing high school he wanted to go to university but due to lack of money was turned down. So, he started working. At the moment he is a computer operator for packaging materials. With the money he earns he pays for his school fees at the Intec College where he is studying visual arts. After this one-year course he plans to do classes in painting, graphic design and, scriptwriting.

‘New Crossroads is a cool place to be. There is a little petty crime around, just like in any other township. I am very concerned by people who drink too much alcohol. They get into stuff that they are not supposed to like unsafe sex, drugs and crime. You know what it is, they want to impress girls by wearing nice clothes but they don´t have the money for it. Very often the ones that rob and steal in New Crossroads come from other surrounding townships.

‘I am not very happy with the limited community services in New Crossroads. There is no library, no computer centre where you can learn how you to use a computer. There are no sport grounds with facilities and there is no internet café. In township Gugs they do have internet café´s. For borrowing books I have to go to Nyanga Township.

‘I want to develop every natural talent that I have. For me the sky is the limit. I will see where I will land but it has to be in art. I can paint and I have started to learn how to play the guitar. My girlfriend bought me one a year ago. Each week I go to guitar lessons in Cape Town but it is very expensive - R50 a lesson. Besides that, it is hard to combine all my artistic ambitions with work.

‘I wish some more services would come to New Crossroads. It would certainly change the current situation in a positive way. The crime rate would be lower. At the moment almost every week there is something happening - a robbery, a shooting. In these two years I was robbed once. Gunmen forced me and my friend to give our cell phones and our money away. They didn´t hurt us. As long as you immediately give it to them usually nothing happens. Police sometimes patrol in the evening but definitely not enough.’

At Zim Saliís place

At Zim Saliís place