The recent rain brought a windfall to young kids who are now making some cash by repairing a damaged gravel road at Matangari, near Tshiombo. The kids advise their peers to follow suit and do something to earn some extra cash during school holidays.

A surprise visit by Mirror saw the young boys busy removing sand from a drain at the bridge of the Mudaswali river on Sunday.

“Motorists offer us cash in return for our services. We thought it would be better to do something because the schools have closed. We can at least take some few rands home but we mainly use the cash for entertainment,” said one of the boys, Khodani Matsilu (11).

Khodani says he wishes it keeps on raining so that he can make some cash timeously.

“We wish the rain can come forever because we know we benefit from it. This is our only source of income at present and we do not want our pockets to run dry…”

Although he enjoys working on the road, Khodani says he is not happy about the behaviour of some motorists who terrorise them. He quoted an incident in which a motorist called him to collect the money, but instead, he shamboked him and told him to go away.

“Motorists must understand that we are assisting them because better roads increase the lifespan of their vehicles,” he said.

Khodani advised other young kids of his age to do something to earn some cash during school holidays. “They need to wake up like us and work hard to get some pocket money,” he concluded, while getting down to work with his small spade.