By Staff Reporter
(Pics by Thomo Nkgadima)
Three years after Sthembiso Makobe was shot and left disabled, his mother still awaits the education and disability laptop and electric bed promised to her son by the Limpopo premier.
Sthembiso, a resident of Apel near Lebowakgomo, Limpopo, shares a home with the family.
His mother desperately wants to see her son go back to school and fulfill his dream of becoming a clinical psychologist.
The family showed Alex Reporter an estimate of R40, 000 for an electrical blanket, which will make Sthembiso comfortable on the bed. And that’ll also keep his back from getting hurt.
The figures will also cover a laptop for the disabled people, which will help him learn and type with his fingers.
Sthembiso’s mother, Rosina Makobe, said that officials of the mayor’s office, in the Greater Sekhukhune District, promised the family the help after her son was injured, but nothing is happening.
He was shot and wounded in a 2018 robbery while attending a nearby school in the evening.
Rosina is seeking help for her son, who did not complete his exams in 2018 following the incident that left him in a wheelchair and paralyzed.
He was born normal and walked like every other guy.
Now he can no longer hold a pen to write; he just uses his flexed fingers to type on a phone.
In spite of these constraints, the young man in a wheelchair wishes to find a school for the disabled, so that he can complete his matric and continue his studies.
“Living with a disability has not been an inability for me because I was not born like this. I have accepted my situation and can do anything that able-bodied people can do except not be able to work and use the hands,” Sthembiso said.
But he hopes he can walk again if he is given medical care that will help him improve his quality of life.
Rosina, the unemployed woman, said it hurts her when she remembers promises made to her family by the government officials.
“He cannot go back to school and fulfill his dream because of the unfulfilled promises,” she said.
The Sthembiso Makobe Trust Fund was created to raise funds on his behalf.
Trust spokesperson Tseke Nchabeleng said that after the sad news about what happened in Sthembiso, the Tshwane Rehabilitation Centre gave him a battery-powered wheelchair.
“We are now looking for a good school for him, but the challenge is for him to have two caretakers,” Nchabeleng said.
Nchabeleng added: “At the time he had hoped to write his matric exams so that he could continue his studies, his life changed and his dream was shut down.”
He was 18 years old when this unfortunate incident took place.
Sthembiso told us that he made peace with himself and found it in his heart to forgive the criminals who left him paralyzed.
However, not a single person was arrested.
