Once homeless, Sam goes to university

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After 30 years of not touching a book, Simbirisiyo Mushanewana, 49, will enrol at Stellenbosch University next year, taking him one step closer to reaching his goal of turning his soup kitchen into a training centre. 

Mushanewana — known as Sam or Sammie — is an Uber driver and the founder of Donations OnWheels (DO), a registered nonprofit organisation that feeds the homeless from the boot of his Nissan Almera. 

After applying at six universities, Sam, who was once homeless, has been accepted at Stellenbosch’s faculty of theology next year. He still hopes to be accepted for a BA social work — for which he was accepted at the University of Pretoria, but it would mean having to relocate.

“I’m just crossing my fingers, hopefully something will come up, if it doesn’t, it is all good,” said Sam at the Post & Pepper, a restaurant in the heart of Stellenbosch’s busy streets filled with students, a demographic Sam cannot wait to join.

“Because learning is learning. Remember in the beginning I said, ‘Even if it is a degree in whistling I will take it’,” laughed Sam before adding, “It is just for me to get the knowledge, it is very important to have knowledge”.

Sam will pay part of the study fees and a flight attendant from Switzerland, who frequently visits South Africa, offered to contribute to his education. 

“This lady, I picked her up [in my Uber] and we [started] talking and I told her my story,” said Sam. 

He once lived with his wife and four children in Kayamandi, an informal settlement outside Stellenbosch. After 20 years of marriage, the couple separated. He was left with a Honda Brio and thoughts of suicide, the Mail & Guardian reported in February. 

When he founded DO three years ago, he had hit rock bottom. It was befriending some of the town’s homeless people that changed his life.

“Instead of giving up I said to myself, let my challenges be my breakthrough, let me use my challenges as fuel to keep my engine running,” he said at the time.

He declared that from his car boot, there would soon spring a training centre for the indigent wanting a better life.

Since February, Sam has had to retrieve his matric certificate of three decades ago from Zimbabwe. “It was not as difficult as it was costly.” 

He had to put down R1 400 to get a duplicate of his matric certificate, and another R1 400 to “release” the certificate and have it couriered to South Africa. To submit his Zimbabwean certificate to the South African Qualifications Authority cost R2 850. Converting the certificate into South African standards cost a further R2 850. 

His study visa and a premium account (allowing him to submit it at any time without an appointment) amounted to R2 600. Then it was the required doctor’s letter, registration fees and other items.

In April he was ready to apply at a university, which he promptly did. 

“I was going to just apply to all of them,” said Sam. “Next year I will be driving with my books under my seat and while I wait [for a client] I will read two paragraphs.”

Sam is not oblivious to the inevitable changes that lie ahead.

The NPO will continue to operate, while he will work his 12-hour shift to pay off his three vehicles.

“I need to balance everything,” said Sam, who trusts his small team of volunteers will fill the void created when he runs class, “but it is all good, there is always a way somewhere. It will work. As long as I don’t give up. The big problem is when you give up.”

Sam is determined to finish a degree and to gain skills to change DO’s soup kitchen into a training centre “where the underprivileged come and acquire basic skills”. 

He believes that there are people who want to get off the streets, but who do not have the skills, a vehicle or support they need to do so. He recalls assisting a homeless person with employment at a construction site in Strand. “In three week’s time you couldn’t believe it was the same guy. He changed.”

Even if it takes 20 years, said Sam, “whatever time it takes. The thing is, people need skills.” 

It is December, and Sam hopes he will “be on the streets” to fill the homeless with joy. He still waits on Stellenbosch University to let him know if a place has opened to study social work. But he is content.

“You can skate from here to Joburg, you will still arrive, you can walk or fly, you will still arrive, or you can drive — as long as you arrive.”