LUNGILE TOM

● Broadcast journalist Lungile Tom had a big heart.

He died at the age of 45 in a Cape Town hospital on Wednesday, the first South African journalist to die of Covid-19.

“He was able to bring people together. We would walk into a place and find people tense and he would crack a joke,” said his wife, Nandipha Nombutuma. “He always told us that he is very shy. But he was not shy at all.”

Tom had no formal journalism training, learning on the job to become one of SA’s best cameramen.

“He worked for an advertising agency as a driver and then at CNBC Africa,” Nombutuma said. “He would drive the crew to stories and the camera guys taught him how to shoot.” He joined eNCA in 2013. Nombutuma doesn’t know how Tom contracted the virus.

“The last story he did was that of joggers in Sea Point. He had flu some time last week, it was just a normal flu. He said he had nasal congestion and he went to the doctor and got a few meds. But he wasn’t concerned because he had tested for Covid-19 at work before they started covering the corona stories and he had tested negative,” she said.

“On Sunday evening he said he was struggling to breathe and he kept going outside for fresh air. Around 10pm he said he wanted to go to hospital and we called an ambulance. On Monday he told us he would be sedated because he was not doing well.

“The hospital called us on Tuesday evening and said they doubt he’s going to make it through the night. On Wednesday they said we should quickly come and we arrived at around 8am. He had passed away around 7.30am.”

Nombutuma has tested positive for the virus but her son negative. “We are still in shock and disbelief. I feel like he will walk in through the door and tell us: ‘It was a prank, I am alive.’”