Johannesburg – When 70-year-old Sophie Khumalo wrote a letter seeking assistance for her grandson with a disability, she had no idea it would land up in the hands of a deputy minister.
Khumalo sent her letter to the magazine programme, The Chat Room, which airs on SABC1. The show’s producers did one better and forwarded the letter to the Deputy Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, who made a commitment to help the family.
Khumalo lives with her 18-year-old grandson Siyabonga Khumalo and his uncle in Mndeni, Soweto. They all rely on Khumalo’s pension grant.
Bogopane-Zulu asked Khumalo and Siyabonga to come to the department’s head office so she could get a first-hand account of the issues they are battling with.
Siyabonga has been using an old wheelchair for years, and relies on his uncle to wheel him around.
But as of today, he will be able to go wherever he wants without anyone’s assistance, thanks to Bogopane-Zulu, who kept her promise and delivered a proper wheelchair to him.
For the deputy minister, handing over the wheelchair to Siyabonga was only one part of a range of things her department would do to improve his life.
“The wheelchair is not the primary reason we are here. We promised gogo to come and evaluate where Siyabonga lives as a person living with disability. The wheelchair was just one of the long shopping list [items] gogo and Siyabonga requested.”
Bogopane-Zulu noted that Siyabonga’s living conditions were not conducive to the use of a wheelchair.
“We have a disability grant in the Department of Human Settlements and its aim is to modify households … This grant is there to make your house accessible. If you own a house as a poor South African … you [can] get that particular grant to make your house accessible, because you need to live in an environment where you are able to function independently,” said the minister.
She said officials from her department would write a report and ask Human Settlements to give Siyabonga an allocation to modify his house so it can be wheelchair-friendly.
Even though the wheelchair was not going to change Siyabonga’s entire life, she said it would at least slow the progression of his disability by helping to improve his sitting posture, supporting his spine and reduce the occurrence of pressure sores.
She said government had enough different funds and grants to look after people with disabilities.
An elated Khumalo said a load had been lifted off her shoulders and thanked the department for its intervention when hearing about their plight.
“I will now be able to sleep because Siyabonga will be able to take care of himself, even when he wants to go to the toilet. I don’t know how to thank the government for this gift. The best news is that they’ve promised to assist to make my house accessible for Siyabonga,” Khumalo said.
Siyabonga, who does not speak much, also thanked Bogopane-Zulu and echoed his grandmother’s sentiments that the wheelchair would make his life easier. – SAnews.gov.za
