He once wore his blue-and-white striped Hugo Boss shirt with pride but it became a source of despair for Bongani Ngcobo, who has tuberculosis.
Those with the disease who are declared too ill to work by a medical professional qualify for a government disability grant.
Ngcobo says the doctor who assessed him told him he “dressed too well to be poor” and declined to recommend that he get the grant.
Ngcobo was jobless because he had spent seven months in hospital being treated for multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis – a form of the disease that requires up to two years of treatment with toxic drugs.
He returned to his home in semi-rural KwaZulu-Natal in November last year with a packet of medicine but no money or food. Research has shown that inadequate nutrition can result in delayed recovery and higher mortality rates for tuberculosis patients.
Progress
On October 1 this year Bhekisisa published a story about Ngcobo.
Two weeks later Mbizeni Madlalose, from the KwaZulu-Natal branch of the South African Social Security Agency, contacted Bhekisisa to say Ngcobo’s application for a monthly R1420 disability grant had been approved.
“We saw in the article that this man needed a grant so we contacted him and the hospital and made arrangements to fast-forward his application,” Madlalose said.
The social security agency, which administers social grants, assisted Ngcobo with transport to and from their offices and the hospital.
“I was so happy,” said Ngcobo. “I couldn’t believe people were helping me finally.”
Officially, he is now the recipient of a temporary disability grant that will expire in six months – he can reapply if he is still too sick to work.
“We are not at fault here because it is not our doctor who saw the client but we decided to assist because we could see he was in need,” Madlalose said.
Asked whether he will lodge a complaint with the health department against the doctor who refused to recommend a disability grant because of the shirt he was wearing, Ngcobo said that he has forgiven the doctor after he apologised to him personally.
“I can only be thankful because I have the grant money, I have food and I am going to get healthy again.”
Hardships
Sandile Gumede, from the local branch of the HIV advocacy group the Treatment Action Campaign, said that Ngcobo is one of many local patients “suffering for service”.
“The one way his case is different is that he got help quickly. The government seems to get a fright when they see things in the newspaper.”
He said this shows “the media is a very powerful” accountability tool that can compel “role-players to move on issues”.
But, he said, it often depends on the influence a media outlet has on people in positions of power.
“You will not find the Mail & Guardian in every household, but it is the newspaper that government decision-makers will have on their desks.
“It’s sad, but if Bongani’s story was in a local daily paper I am sure nothing would have changed. Bongani was lucky enough to be in the M&G.
Source: Mail&Guardian