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Flora Fadzai Sibanda, Chronicle Reporter
NINETY-THREE-year-old Mr John Ncube (93) lives in a dilapidated house in Pumula South and sometimes goes to bed on an empty stomach with his daughter.
The daughter, Ms Silvia Ncube (47) is ill and cannot perform household chores or take care of him.
With a swollen stomach that can easily be mistaken for a pregnancy, Ms Ncube was diagnosed with fibroids in 2017.
A fibroid is a lump or growth in the uterus that is not cancerous. About 30 percent of women aged 30 years or more have fibroids.
Mr Ncube said he used to be a cobbler but can’t do the job anymore after his hand was injured.
“We have not eaten for two consecutive days. The last meal that we had was porridge that did not even have sugar,” he said.
Mr Ncube said with the onset of the rains, life is difficult because the house is partially roofed.
He said it saddens him to see his daughter with such a big stomach as a result of the fibroids.
He appealed to well-wishers to help them.
“I am asking for help so that my daughter can have an operation. We need a place to live, a home that we can safely call ours. It does not matter even if it’s in the rural areas as long as we have a proper home,” said Mr Ncube.
Ms Ncube said she lost her home when her Mthunzini house collapsed in 2017.
She said the incomplete house, that has only one door and is partly roofed, in which she lives with her father belongs to a local property developer that was in charge of the Mthunzini housing project.
Ms Ncube said she never believed in the saying that it never rains but pours up until it happened to her.
She said their other family members are based in South Africa and do not care about their plight.
“It’s one problem after another. I remember I collapsed the day my house fell on top of me. The last thought on my mind was my father because I knew he was inside the house. After we both survived the fibroids issue came,” she said.
“I lost my home and I am now living with this illness. It saddens me that we are now homeless.”
Ms Ncube said when the fibroids started, she thought she was pregnant.
She said the doctors told her it is curable through an operation but she has no money to pay for the surgery.
“I don’t even have money to rent a proper place for me and my father. Raising money for the operation is really not my priority now,” she said tearfully.
Ms Ncube said she was a cross-border trader but stopped due to her condition.
“I can’t even carry a heavy thing. We survive through handouts from the SDA church here in Pumula South. Sometimes my father ends up cooking for me because the stomach would be very uncomfortable,” she said.
Ms Ncube said what they urgently need is a proper house now that the rainy season has started.
Those who want to help the old man and his daughter can contact Ms Ncube on 0776446042. – @flora_sibanda
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