VENDOR IN WAITING: Siyabonga Bobo

VENDOR NUMBER: 2685

LOCATED AT: Buitengracht Street, Cape Town

Siyabonga Bobo believes that obtaining his learner’s licence was merely the first step towards creating a brighter future for himself and his young family.

“Now that I am a father I must do everything that I can to give my son, one-year-old Siyabonga Jr, a happy and safe life and the way to do that is it to improve my prospects,” he says.

By booking an appointment to take his code 10 (heavy vehicle) driver’s licence, he’s already halfway through the next step in his plan to become a driver for a freight transport company, and now just needs to raise the money to hire a truck for the test.

“I am not afraid of driving trucks because I have knowledge about cars. If I hear a knock or the clutch breaks I can fix it. It will be challenging and interesting,” he says.

Siyabonga, who was studying to become an auto-electrician but had to quit when he could no longer afford to attend classes, eventually hopes to save enough money through truck-driving to be able to open up his own workshop.

“I was fitting alarms and immobilisers by the age of 17. That first job I had in the industry proved to me that I have what it takes to be really good. I just need the opportunity to prove myself to others,” he says.

Siyabonga has been selling the magazine for three years now and, although he’s ready to move on, leaving The Big Issue will be hard for him.

“Selling is an amazing thing, meeting people is so wonderful and I really love my customers. I enjoy it too much and don’t want to just abandon my customers,” he says.

SHOOTING FROM THE HIP

My favourite book is: A Long Walk to Freedom — I started reading it one day and I couldn’t even go out and sell, I just had to finish it
My hero is: my father. Today I look at fathers and they are all too busy drinking to take care of their children; my father made sure that we had a roof over our head after he was gone. He was a hero
If I could buy any gift for my son it would be...a library full of encyclopaedias — because knowledge is power