He lost his mother and father . . . but he survives
IN 2001, when he was just three, Ithumaleng Letsatsi awoke one morning to find his mother, Cheryl-Anne, dead in their bed, alongside him.
Now almost 19 and on a daily dose of antiretrovirals, Ithumaleng, who lives in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, contracted the virus at birth from his mother.
As a child he was ostracised by the children in Philippi, where he lived with his HIV-positive father, Goodrich, because their parents feared they would contract the virus from him. The crèche told his father he was no longer welcome after some parents objected and removed their children.
A year after his mother’s death, his father died of TB.
But his tragic story also revealed another, kinder face of the Aids pandemic: the angels who, without pay or recognition, helped care for sick people, washing their bodies and ensuring they had food.
In this case it was an unemployed man, Patrick Titi, who took on the unpaid role as caregiver to young Ithumaleng and his father. Patrick was consumed by guilt because he had not been there for his own son when he was dying of Aids in Port Elizabeth.
Today, Ithumaleng, who has a learning disability, lives with his father’s brother, Eric Letsatsi, and his wife Edith, in Khayelitsha.
“When Tumi came to us he was very sick,” Edith said. “The doctors said he wouldn’t live. He was put on ARVs when he was 11 and his face got full and he got his appetite back.”
Remembering the dark, desperate days of the pandemic, she said: “It was terrible . . . Lots of people were dying, family, friends, their children . . . and there was nothing you could do.”
He was put on ARVs when he was 11 and his face got full and he got his appetite back