Sweef | Die broodwenner – P.J. Haasbroek | English Summary

Sweef en ander Verhale

Die broodwenner – P.J. Haasbroek

Jakoet is a diver who dives to collect lobsters to sell for his family. The entire community of Tarentaalplaas is poor, and they are mostly without work, so putting food on the table and having electricity in the house is a tough task. Jakoet borrows old Kassiem’s delivery bicycle to carry his diving gear, and he rides off to Rooiels to get the lobsters. Usually, one would need a permit and diving for lobsters is only permitted between 8 am and 5 pm, but Jakoet needs the money, and the weather is excellent – he’s feeling positive about the haul he will get. The collection of lobsters is difficult because he needs to make sure they grow big enough, and he needs to avoid female lobsters with soft shells, or those carrying eggs. He catches four on an average day, but on excellent days, he catches 8 or even 10.

Jakoet feels the pressure on days when he can’t catch anything because his mother has become accustomed to his income. She can’t earn it herself because she can’t swim. On days when he brings back money, he feels great because he is able to buy bread, milk, sugar, coffee, even pay for electricity and his school necessities. His mother smiles, calling him their breadwinner. He has many diving points, but this time, he’s going to Robklip, where the rocks are smooth and sharp. It is dangerous – one false move, and he’ll plunge onto the rocks below, which are sharp.

After 30 minutes of diving, Jakoet manages to catch five lobsters, which is very good for him. Old man Kassiem once told Jakoet about a time when lobsters were abundant, and one didn’t have to go diving to find them. However, the emergence of fisheries with their quotas for lobsters drastically cut down the number of lobsters available – now finding just a few is a mission. After diving for a few more lobsters, Jakoet is pulled by a strong current to greater depths, and he tries to swim back to the rock. Soon he sees a strange shadow following him, and as he continues to swim back to the rocks, he realises what he sees – a great white shark.

He decides to kick very gently to avoid looking like a seal trying to evade the shark. As more time passes, Jakoet gets a closer look at the shark and is taken aback at its size. With an eye the size of a tennis ball, the shark he initially thought could be a female Great White Shark made larger in appearance by the water; it is quite the sizable animal. It begins circling, and things get tense as Jakoet needs to come up for air. At some point, he ends up face to face with the shark. He wonders if it’ll attack him the moment he comes up and when it is less than three meters away, Jakoet decides to remain as still as possible, kicking only to avoid sinking.

The shark swims past him, out of sight. Jakoet swims back to the safety and darkness of the rocks. The shark was the most interesting thing Jakoet had ever seen in his life. He didn’t know how he was going to describe his experience to his friends, or if they’d even believe him. He wondered why it didn’t attack him, looking at him and then swimming past passively. On his way to Gordon’s Bay, he thinks about his experience. He sells the five lobsters to a person from Johannesburg for R300 and heads back to Tarantaalplaas, but he runs into three thugs on the way.

One of them, Mickey Plaatjies, a crackhead known in Casablanca, asks if he’s been doing deliveries. They try to intimidate him, but he throws bottles at them until they run away. He screams that he isn’t afraid of people like them – he has nothing to be afraid of in the Cape anymore.

SummariesKeroshan Pillay1 Comment