Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Pirates players help boy in his recovery
On the mend after mutilation
TWO months ago, Louisa Baloyi* had no idea how she could help her traumatised son, Gift*.
The Ivory Park, Midrand family was struggling to afford the child’s transport costs for his frequent hospital visits and couldn’t take him for the psychological counselling he so desperately needed.
In April 2016, Gift was kidnapped outside his family’s modest home and taken to a veld by neighbours who mutilated the then-12-year-old and left him for dead.
But now, with the help of readers of the Saturday Star, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and activist Andile Gaelesiwe, Gift is taking his first steps on the road to recovery.
In February, the Saturday Star detailed Gift’s horrifying attack, and how he had helped, as a single witness in the subsequent criminal trial, to convict the men who had tried to kill him and left him irreparably scarred.
Following the article, readers donated thousands of rands to help with Gift’s transport costs; he has been offered free counselling from NGO Women and Men Against Child Abuse and received further assistance from other charitable organisations.
But for Gaelesiwe, what was equally important was getting Gift’s mind back into a positive state. In March, Gaelesiwe took Gift to meet some of his sporting idols at a training session of Orlando Pirates.
The 14- year- old got an opportunity to play with the team, which has rekindled his love of soccer.
“He is still talking about it,” Louisa told the Saturday Star this week. “And he wants to go back!”
“He couldn’t believe he was seeing all these players... They just embraced him, and I think it was such an important moment for him,” said Gaelesiwe.
“I love this boy. He has been sick recently, and he was getting depressed.
( Hospital visits) are a reminder of what happened to him, but he told me he knows it won’t always be like this. I love his spirit,” she said.
The activist and TV presenter has also brought in The Character Company, an organisation that helps traumatised children, and those with absent fathers, through weekly and monthly activities, including camping trips, mentorship programmes and other excursions.
Character Company founder Jaco van Schalkwyk has personally taken Gift under his wing. “We’ve spent a lot of time together over the past two months,” said Van Schalkwyk, who believes that he can help Gift regain a sense of trust.
“The trauma he’s experienced, it’s unimaginable, but there must a calling on his life to have survived something like this. He is a remarkable child. There is a gentleness in his spirit that is just amazing,” he said.
Meanwhile, NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane has enlisted a law firm, ENS Africa, to assist in managing Gift’s trust, which will help to cover his medical costs in the future.
“We are still looking for an auditor, if anyone can help with that,” she said this week.
Mjonondwane is also trying to find sponsorship to cover the travel costs for Gift to receive a consultation with Professor André van der Merwe, who performed South Africa’s first penis transplant at Tygerberg Academic Hospital in 2015. Even though Van der Merwe said Gift would have to wait until he reaches adulthood before such an operation could take place, he has said that he would be happy to provide a consultation.
lf you are interested in contributing to Gift’s trust, please contact shain. germaner@ inl.co.za or Mjonondwane on HLouw@npa.gov.za.
*Not their real names