Johannesburg - In a few hours time, a man will be lowered
from the side of an office building in Cape Town, where he will have
spent six days and five nights high above ground, ib a makeshift
ledge.
Trevor Johnston will clamber out, stretch his sore limbs and take
a running dive into the Atlantic Ocean, the sight of whose sparkling
waters have been torturing him since he began his gruelling stay in
the sky on Monday morning.
Johnston, 42, is the CEO of the Educo Africa charity, a member of
the Educo International Alliance, which runs training and development
programmes for some of South Africa's most marginalized people,
particularly children.
By living for a week in a 2.5-by-1.5-metre perch, overhanging four
lanes of traffic in Seapoint neighbourhood, Johnston aims to
highlight the plight of people living on the edge of survival in
Africa's richest country.
From his hangout, he has a birds-eye perspective of the growing
gap between rich and poor in South Africa's oldest city.
'I can see a lot of people driving by and people throwing away
food while young children are living rough on a piece of lawn across
from the beach,' he says in a telephone interview 24 hours before his
return to earth.
'It's a disgrace,' says Johnston, who hails from the Cape Flats, a
sprawling expanse of townships, where non-whites were dumped by the
government during apartheid.
Onboard the ledge Johnston has a laptop on which he updates a
blog, a few books, a sleeping bag, some toiletries, a torch and a
stove. A bucket of sand is lowered to him from time to time to
collect his waste. He is tethered to the apparatus by two slings.
By day five, he has a bit of bronchitis but the nights haven't
really been a problem, he says. The sun is the killer. 'It just beats
down all day long,' says the mountaineering enthusiast.
While he had hoped to raise funds for Educo, by Friday evening
Johnston's sacrifice hadn't elicited a cent.
'Not once cent, not even a pair of shoes for the kids,' he says,
sounding deflated.
Educo Africa's profile has been boosted, however. Cape Town's
deputy mayor came by for a visit, as have several journalists, and
passersby, while keeping their hands in their pockets, have shouted
out their support.
'If I can just change one kid's life, it will be worth it,' he
says.
For more information: www.educo.org.za
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