Grade 8, PUSH
Once upon a time in the city of Cape Town lived a young woman by the name of Leandra. Leandra was beautiful, sophisticated, quiet and respectful. She lived alone in a four-roomed house. It was 26 March and it was the beginning of lockdown. Leandra worked at a garage as a cashier so she continued to go to work.
One warm day, Leandra had not yet been paid, and had no money to go to work. She decided to borrow money from her friend who lived in the next street. When Leandra reached there, she said, ‘Elandre, my friend, I need your help. I am a little short on taxi fare and I need R50 to get to work. I was hoping you could help me.’
Elandre said, ‘I am willing to lend you the R50 only if you promise to pay it back.’ Leandra agreed to Elandre’s conditions. Elandre then gave Leandra the money. On her way back home, Leandra met the South African Defence Force (SANDF) and they asked her questions like, ‘What are you doing in the street?’, ‘ Where is your mask?’, ‘ Where is your permit to be here?’
Leandra did not have answers to any of the questions and they then gave her corporal punishment. Leandra squatted for ten minutes and did fifteen frog jumps. She had a few body aches but they went away the next day. When Leandra was paid, she went to Elandre’s house and she took a mask with her. When she got there, she thanked Elandre, and gave her the money back.
While she was there, they saw the same soldiers from the SANDF from the other day and they shot her. They did not even ask her where she was coming from and why she was outside. They shot her with rubber bullets and two of the bullets went to her head and one hit her in her spinal cord. After they ran away, the neighbours came out, and arranged a car to take her to the hospital, knowing that an ambulance will take too long.
When they reached the hospital, the doctor attended to Leandra, and took her blood for testing. The neighbours then informed Elandre the next day about this incident with Leandra, knowing that Elandre was the closest thing that Leandra had to family.
Elandre quickly rushed to the hospital after work where the doctor told her that her friend now has amnesia. Elandre broke down and asked to see her. The doctor let her into Leandra’s room. She was lying unconscious because of the medication they had given her. When she woke up, she was discharged,but because of her condition, she was not supposed to live alone.
Elandre took Leandra into her house. The next day the two friends went to the garage where Leandre worked in Linden. They then explained what had happened and about Leandra’s condition. Elandre was the only one working after that. A few days’ later, Elandre said that she cannot support two people on a cashier’s salary, and she also had rent to pay. They then had to leave Elandre’s house and they went to live in Leandra’s house.
Elandre took Leandra to their neighbour’s house for them to look after her. Leandra was not getting better because she was not allowed to go to the clinic for check-ups because she could easily contract COVID-19. Elandre decided to put Leandra in a home and then she visited her almost every day. Elandre was then able to support herself.