"I don't mind human poo, because for me, it brings food to the table," reckons Onnea Godfrey Nethengwe (26) from Ngovhela Phindula village, outside Sibasa, who makes a living by draining full pit toilets.
Nethengwe has obtained his Grade 12 and an N2 boilermaker certificate, but he still could not get a job, so he started considering doing something not everyone is willing to do. That was when he came up with the idea of draining pit toilets.
"I realized that many people would prefer to rather have their pits toilets drained instead of building new ones all the time. This is cheaper and it saves space as long as the old pit has walls around it," he said.
Nethengwe works alone most of the time but sometimes, when he has many toilets to drain, he calls on friends to help him for a fee.
"When a pit toilet is full, I dig another pit next to it. I then make a hole in the wall of the toilet below the ground so that the excrement can flow into the new pit. When this is done, I close the hole in the toilet again and cover the new pit with soil," he explained.
Asked if this stinky job does not offend him, he said: "Money is money. It doesn't matter where it comes from, as long as you earn it honestly. To me, there is no difference between cow dung and human poo. If people can use cow dung to decorate the floor, why should I be offended by human poo? Cow dung is also poo, but people have accepted that it is useful in their lives. In my opinion, it is the same with human poo."
Nethengwe encourages young unemployed people to think outside the box and forget what other people might think of them. "Wake up and create your own jobs. Who cares what others think of you? Look, I work with human poo every day, but I'm not ashamed of it. I am self-sufficient and that is what matters," he said.