As I walked in at the gate I was greeted by evidence of poverty with the ardor from the outside toilet indicating that I was walking in a serious desperate family that was in a dire need for help.
This is the home of the Makobane family in Majaneng that is in need of desperate help to fend for themselves and their twin orphaned and disabled grandsons.
The twins have been in the care of their 77-year-old Nkgono Salome Modise-Madonsela and Mkhulu Joseph Mokobane (73) since 2008 after the parents of the twins died four months after they were born.
The twins, Ofentse and Lesego, were born with conditions that hospitals have not been able to diagnose. As a results, the grandparents still do not know what is their conditions and what is their special needs or what could cure them.
The one twin, Lesego, is completely disabled and cannot do anything for himself, while Lesego can at least walk and run around, he still needs special care.
Nkgono Salome, who also lives on a pension grant, said she the kids have been in and out of Jubilee and George Mukhari Hospitals but the doctors cannot treat their condition.
“I have been taking Lesego for medical attention since he was four months old but the doctors have not been helpful as they only stretch him and say he will get better.”
Asked how they were able to survive with only a pension grant and the disability grants of the twins, she said sometimes they are forced to take diapers and food on credit to be able to maintain Lesego’s condition whose condition is worse.
When he is suffering from diarrhea, it becomes very difficult, as it requires a lot of diaper change. That is one key challenge as the family is left in debt every month.
Unlike Ofentse, Lesego needs assistance with everything from bathing, eating or relieving himself. It is better because he is able to signal when he needs food or water.
The twins were taken to a home for children living with disability locally but were retrieved by the grandfather because the facility could not cater for their needs.
“We took them back after their grandfather went to visit them at that facility and he found them in a dehumanizing condition. Lesego showed signs of not having eaten in days and he cried at the sight of his grandfather. When he asked why they are not feeding the kid they told him that they are unable to feed him as they cannot manage his condition,” said Ms Makobane.
She said Ofentse whereabouts were not know even though he was in the yard under their care. When they finally located him, he also showed signs of starvation and that is when the grandparents decided to bring them home.
“When they arrived at home I cooked for them and they ate like they have never seen food before, so much that I cried because it looked like if we did not go to check them they could have died of hunger,” She said.
The family is pleading with those who are able to assist to come forward and assist with a a proper wheelchair for Lesego and proper food for him as he cannot eat ordinary food that adults eat and uses diapers.
They also pleaded for any medical practitioner who can help diagnose their condition to please help.
As Moretele Times conducted the interview, little Lesego was seating on his self-made wheelchair helplessly and quietly but showed signs of understanding the environment around him.
When the camera pointed his direction, he started dancing around on his chair showing signs of excitement.
But the wheelchair he was seating on told a story that this family is in severe need of help.
The grandparents showed a sense of hopelessness, hopelessness, poverty and in their discussions, a loss of hope in government because the government grant is far from providing the special medical and diet needs of the children.
The grandfather is the only one who can handle Lesego because the grandmother has no energy.
As the grandfather starts feeding Lesego, he holds him in his arms but struggles with him because he needs trained professionals to feed him.
Even in this desperate hopeless situation, the love of the grandfather for his grandson is evident as he holds him and the eye contact from Lesego with is grandfather, signals Lesego’s only sense of hope in his frail grandfather.
After feeding him, he puts him back in his wheelchair, and the family seats together looking at the sun go down, bringing with it, its own episodes.
