‘After the loss of my baby I suffered inside’
AT LEAST three people have died here and two pregnant women have lost their unborn babies for want of medical services – and that’s in 2018 alone.
To get to the nearest health facility from Ngcobo’s Gubenxa administrative area, over 700 households from seven villages have to travel at least 60km to get to Khowa (formerly Elliot) or 100km to Ngcobo.
But this is not the kind of 60km that takes an hour. The mountainous roads are in such a bad state that it is difficult and slow on a good day for an ambulance, or ordinary vehicle – dangerous at night and impossible in bad weather.
The villagers say they have been forgotten by the government.
Not only is healthcare far away and road maintenance an even more distant dream, but there are no taps, and no word of plans for them. People fetch water from streams and rivers they have to share with their livestock.
There is no high school near the seven villages and the nearest police station is more than 100km away.
Community leader Mveleli Lengisi said: “I tell you if we had a clinic here, these people could have been saved.
“A one-year-old boy was burnt by boiling water at home and had to be rushed to a clinic 70km away. He died three days later. Had we had this clinic, I believe that boy would have been alive today.”
Some, like the Toto sisters, have bought a wheelbarrow. They use it to push their frail 78-year-old mother 300m up a steep hill to the nearest bus station, as no ambulances will come to Tywabatywaba village.
Nokuzola Toto said at times they had to carry her mother Nomagqira in a makeshift stretcher that is made of wood. “We’ve been struggling with her health. It costs R800 to Khowa and R1 200 to All Saints Hospital for a private taxi when she gets sick. This is costly for a family like ours,” said Toto.
Nomaxhalanga Yeko said they paid R400 for the wheelbarrow.
“As you can see, it’s our only vehicle for our mother. We literally have nothing. Any form of support would change our lives,” said Yeko.
Nomagqirha is developing bed sores. “We are watching our mother dying in front of us. We just pray someone will have a heart and take her to hospital and get a wheelchair for her,” said Toto.
Lengisi said the urgent need was for a clinic. “We can’t just watch while our people, mostly young women, lose their children because we don’t have a facility in this area.
“In the past few years we can count more than 10 people whom we can say their lives could have been saved if we had a clinic here,” he said.
Because there is no high school in the village, children as young as 13 are forced to leave home and live on their own as they have to go to other villages and rent.
Children of parents who cannot afford to pay that rent simply end up dropping out.
“We are a forgotten village here. “We are suffering as we are not getting any attention from the leadership or government officials.
“Help us, government. We are living on an island where no one cares how we survive.
“There are just no services,” villager Mlungeleni Sombo said.
Khizanto Mbolo added: “We hire a taxi to town and we queue for help.
“But then at 4pm we get told that the clinic has closed.
“We suffer and suffer, and there are no ambulances for this area.”
Last week, as reported in the Dispatch, a delegation of villagers left home soon after midnight to reach Bhisho by 7am to plead for a clinic.
Health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the community met with former health MEC Dr Phumza Dyantyi.
“It has been agreed that a mobile clinic will visit the village at least twice a week and a war board would be established in the community,” said Kupelo.
“Currently the department has set aside a budget to refurbish existing health facilities.
“There’s no budget for new facilities. The community understood this position.”
The area consist of the following villages:
● Sidikidiki with 45 households;
● Matyeni with 120 households;
● Elixeni with 85 households;
● Thaleni with 140 households;
● Tywabatywaba with 120 households;
● KwaGcina with 160 households; and
● Gubeki with 105 households. ASITHANDILE Potoza, 19, lost her unborn baby this month because there was no ambulance or health professionals in her village to assist her while she was in labour.
The would-be first-time mother, from Gubenxa administrative area in Ngcobo, spoke to the Daily Dispatch about her ordeal.
“I was looking forward to have my first child.
“When I lost her, my mind raced back and I remembered that a number of other women in this village have lost their babies because of lack of health services,” said Potoza.
She said if she had relatives in other towns she would live with them just to be closer to services.
“But for people like me that is only a dream. After the loss of my baby, I suffered inside,” said Potoza.
No-Action Sithilenga miscarried in 1988 while travelling to hospital on the back of a bakkie on a bumpy road.
“The system is unfair to us, the poor. We cannot be this neglected.
“My first child died in 1988 and 30 years later, when someone loses her child and I know that baby could have been helped, it pains me,” she said.
The villagers have to dig deep into their pockets whenever they have to travel to Khowa or Ngcobo to get treatment from clinics.
People living with chronic illnesses such as HIV/Aids, cancer and high blood pressure have to fork out R300 for transport to the clinic.
Because the majority of the villagers are unemployed, there is little option but to skip treatment.
One of those who is sick is Nongayi Mhlapho, who has been suffering from her illness for the past decade. “I stay in this village and I have nothing, no money, yet I am forced to travel a long distance to get medication.
Mhlapho has an infant who suffers from epileptic fits. “We deserve clinics or weekly mobile clinics here. It can be done if the government knows about our plight. We can’t continue losing our children because of their negligence.
“I am not the only person here who suffers like this.” Another chronic patient, Bulelwa Madini said: “We did not choose to stay in an area without services.” —