Three people tell their stories of living on the streets in Cape Town in a new play directed by award-winning playwright Mike van Graan.
Cyprian Manqola, Jonathan Manuel and Staysher Julies have all been through the Streetscapes programme, which offers training, work opportunities, psychosocial support and shelter to people trying to make their way off the streets. Now they are peer counsellors, helping others find their way.
On Saturday, about 50 people came to watch them tell their stories in “Humans of the Streets”, directed by van Graan, at St Thomas church hall in Rondebosch. This was the third performance of the 40-minute play.
Manqola grew up in Khayelitsha and started living on the streets in Cape Town in 2016. At home, he had struggled with substance use and psychosis. He said his parents were patient at first. “But they couldn’t really take it anymore. They chased me out of the house,” he told GroundUp.
Within a month of living on the streets his bag, containing his clothes, his ID and other documents, was stolen.
He tried to find work, but he said nobody would consider him because his clothes were dirty. “Even if your CV is clean, nobody’s going to take you.”
The play was not the first time he had been on stage. “I used to do rap back in Khayelitsha,” he said. The audience reaction to the first shows had been positive, Manqola said.
He hopes to start making music again. He has started recording songs on a computer and plans to make a music video.
Manuel said he ended up on the streets after his mother died. He had been living on the streets for 20 years when he joined the Streetscapes programme.
“On the streets, you must do something to survive. I began to engage with people who were breaking into cars and robbing people,” he told GroundUp.
He was arrested and spent seven years in reformatories and time in various prisons, including Malmesbury and Riebeeck West.
In jail, he says, he saw “bad things”, including people leaving prison without an eye, with fingers chopped off, and even without an arm. He joined a gang to survive.
“I came out of prison and I told myself that I’m going to change my life,” said Manuel.
Now 39, he lives in a shelter in Woodstock. His dream is to have a stable job and become a father. “I want to have my own place, a family of my own. That is my heart’s desire.”
On the streets, Julies said, “people look at you like you’re worth nothing”.
“You’re just a drug addict and that’s your life.”
Originally from Mitchells Plain, she said things at home were difficult, with a father in jail, and she had left home at a young age. But being on the street, she said, was particularly difficult for women. “I’ve been raped, I’ve been hurt … It’s not a good idea for a woman to be alone out there.”
Since going through the programme, she has moved in with her siblings into a house near the city centre.
She said she appreciated the chance to be involved in theatre.
“I would really like to help people out there, to show them that there is a second chance if they just take the resources that are there,” said Julies.
Van Graan told GroundUp he had recorded the three stories and developed them into a script, which the three had learned. In the script they help each other with translations from Afrikaans.
“In the two performances that we’ve had so far, people have been very generous and very warm in their responses”, van Graan said, and that had made a difference to the way the three actors felt. “They feel that they are being seen,” he said. At one show, one of the actors had burst into tears.
Van Graan said the first few shows “are just the beginning” as there are plans to take the play across Cape Town in the coming months. The next show is at the Central Methodist Church on Thursday, 7 May at 7pm.
The play ends with a call to the audience. “There are thousands of humans on the streets. We invite you to work with us,” say the three stars of the show.
© 2026 GroundUp. This article is published under the GroundUp Republication Licence Version 1.0. Email [email protected] to request permission to republish.
Ineffective policing: Concerns about the efficiency and effectiveness of law enforcement.
predator
Is it? – Is that so? [iz-zit] A basic conversational word that can be inserted at various points in any conversation, meaning “oh, wow!” or “Is that so?” It can also be used when you don’t really feel like talking and don’t want to be rude but want to seem as if you’re listening. Example: “Last week we went on a game drive! Sho my bru! We saw loads of antelope!” “Is it, hey!”
Racy Lion
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”