Johannesburg - “God, if you want to take him, take him, because he has suffered. I’ve done my best for him.”
That was a desperate mother’s prayer as she watched her son struggle to breathe while sleeping outside on a cold Joburg night.
Moments later, Lucia Mdluli said she leaned over to where her son Lindokuhle, 17, was sleeping and was disheartened to find that he was still breathing.
“I have never felt that way ever since he got disabled. I have never said an ugly prayer like that, but two nights ago I just threw in the towel,” Mdluli said on Sunday as she wept.
Lindokuhle suffered brain damage after being admitted to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital for burn wounds, his mother said.
No apology or compensation was given for the child developing a disability while in hospital, she said.
Health spokesman Simon Zwane said 13 years was a long time. Doctors who treated the boy might have moved and management had changed over the years. But if the woman could provide a patient name and number, then they could try to look for the files and investigate.
Lindokuhle and his mother spent their sixth night out in the cold after the Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC) evicted them from a flat at the Newtown Urban Village in Fordsburg. The JHC bought the building at an auction.
Mdluli said most of the people who were evicted had found alternative accommodation, but she could not go anywhere as she had a number of household goods, and some of her relatives believed that Lindokuhle should be sent to a home.
Mdluli said she couldn’t just offload him at a home.
“He is my life,” she said.
In between tending to Lindokuhle, she said her biggest challenge was the unavailability of water as Lindokuhle soils himself all the time and she has to wash his nappies.
“The bed is beginning to smell very badly as that’s where he spends all his time.”
The issue of proper food is also bothering Mdluli as she hasn’t been able to cook since her eviction, depending on handouts from well-wishers.
Mdluli used to have a job before her son became disabled, but had to stop and survive on his disability grant. She has also been forced to beg for food and coins at times.
Three weeks ago, Mdluli was evicted, but was allowed back into her flat on account of Lindokuhle’s disability. She was evicted again recently.
Mdluli said mayoral committee member for housing Daniel Bovu had promised to get accommodation for her, but she never heard from him.
Efforts to get hold of Bovu were unsuccessful as he was said to be on leave.
The Star was directed to councillor Nokuthula Xaba, who said housing was Bovu’s responsibility.
On Monday night, Mdluli spent her sixth night in the cold with her son.
When The Star arrived in Newtown on Monday night, social workers were negotiating with Mdluli to allow them to take her son to a place of safety in Nigel, Ekurhuleni.
But an incensed Mdluli retorted: “You want to abuse him and take him to an environment he doesn’t know. You want to take to him to people he doesn’t know. You can’t take my son away from me. I can sleep under a bridge with him.”
But the social worker, who refused to identify herself, insisted: “Can I take him away? It’s cold here. He can’t spend another night here.”
Mdluli said she would not let anyone take her child away from her and would not leave her furniture in the street because it would get stolen.
“Don’t come here and judge me. I’m counted as one of the best mothers in the whole world,” said Mdluli angrily.
While talking to the social workers, a child sent by a friend brought Mdluli supper.