Young boy just want to soar with his school mates

MSHOLOZI – While other children happily run around carrying their school bags, a 12-year-old boy faces an uncertain future.

According to the boy’s unemployed mother, Ms Nokuthula Ngwenya, her son Thabang was a bubbly young child who was passionate about school. She hoped that in the future, after completing his education, he would look after her and his siblings.

In June last year Thabang developed an abscess behind one of his knees. “He gained a limp and after the wound had healed, he was unable to fully stretch his leg and complained of painful muscles,” said the mother. She took him to White River Clinic.

He was transferred to Rob Ferreira Hospital and admitted for six weeks. “He was examined, operated on and discharged, but he never fully recovered,” she said. This all happened while the boy was doing grade four at Boschr and Primary School.

Due to his condition, he dropped out of school last year. However, when schools opened this year, Thabang, who walks very slowly on two crutches, was determined to go back to school. After consulting with the school’s management, the mother was told that the boy will not be able to walk around the school premises because of the many steps to each of the classrooms.

According to her, the principal said that he won’t allow the child to come to school even if he used a wheelchair, because the environment would be dangerous for him. “It is true that the environment at the school is not friendly for wheelchair users as one has to climb steps.

I wish there was something I could do for him because he cries each time he sees his friends passing by on their way to school,” she said. The single mother of three depends on her children’s grant money.

They share a dilapidated two-room shack made of wood and covered with black plastic Mr Gerald Sambo, spokesperson for the department of education, promised to involve the directorate of inclusive education in the matter to assist Thabang with his education.

For any other assistance the boy’s family can be contacted via this newspaper on 013-755-1600/1622