By Siyanda Zinyanga
At the age of 10, Mthuthuzeli David Songogo suffered from what he calls a “witchcraft-attack stroke”, resulting in leg paralysis. He was taken to several hospitals, but doctors couldn’t discover the cause of the stroke. So they just offered him walking sticks and a manual wheelchair. He was also taken to a traditional healer, who couldn’t find any traditional remedies to help either.
Since then, Songogo, who is now 63 and lives in Fingo Village, has had little help from the government. He says that the government moves slowly regarding people with disabilities and that he still has to get around with crutches and a manual wheelchair.
“It pains me to see the disabled being given automatic wheelchairs on television, when I don’t have one,” Songogo said. He added that doctors should be able to perceive that his body parts are not working correctly, and he shouldn’t have to say what everyone can plainly see – that he needs an electric wheelchair.
As he can’t get a job, Songogo has had to resort to begging in order to survive. But he also started a football club in 1994, known as the New Seekers, to help make money. He said that he began the soccer team as a way to remind himself of the person he could have become if he had not suffered from a stroke. He was helped in this venture by a former Rhodes University student, who bought a football strip for his club after they met on the street while he was begging for money. He lives with his wife, and apart from begging and the football club, he also has a small pension.
But apart from struggling to make money, surviving as a disabled person in Makahnda is not easy. For a decade, his street lights have not been working, which he says has been a factor in the increase of house break-ins on his street. He has personally been a victim of crime; thieves stole his wife’s wallet while they were asleep.
He also noted that besides the problems in his house, the drainage system outside his house gave up a long time ago and is filled with cling-wrapped rubbish and plastic bags, which decay, resulting in a terrible stench.
