Children who beg at traffic lights
Begging or Busking? The first time I saw Lenny – as I shall call him – was when he appeared at my car window at the traffic lights. Lenny busks along the solid white road marking, moving about or stopping to serenade to motorists stopping at the red lights. He is about 12 years old and he is super-confident. This entrepreneur has his own trade tool, a guitar of sorts. The guitar is a 40 cm piece of driftwood with three strings of gut and a dented, white, empty 20ml juice bottle at the end. Then you hear the 3-line song from the busker who looks you straight in the eye. The song is timed to perfection to allow Lenny to woo more than one motorist who is forced to wait for the green light. My chuckle at this feisty young boy topples into laughter when I hear the key refrain “ en nog ‘n twee rand vir my” ( and another R2 for me ). He had his bottom line sorted – no copper coins here for his talent. I was seriously tempted to part with my R2 when my inner voice rem...