A friend when days were dark
May 5, 2003
By: SG Khumalo, Piet Retief
There are times in all our lives when things are tough and we find out who our real friends are.
A teacher who worked in a nearby school in my community was once very badly treated. He was ill, and the staff suspected that he was HIV-positive. They chucked him out of the school, just struck him from the school register for no apparent reason.
The teacher was sick for six months, coughing and weak. Community members even accused him of sleeping with young girls because they were quite sure he was HIV-positive. In the end, whole schools in my area were affected by all of this.
The saddest thing was that he was the best teacher I have ever had in my presence. He taught maths and science, and learners were all impressed with his amazing skills and teaching techniques. Outcomes-based education was easy meat for him. Other teachers used to ask him for advice the whole time.
But when his dark days came upon him, they all rejected him. They refused to communicate with him or help him in any way because they feared that they’d be infected with HIV/Aids. He lived in isolation, and his long illness brushed aside all that was good about him, leaving him to appear as a useless man in the community.
I approached him one day with the aim to help him. He was so surprised because he had lost all hope in people. But I gave him hope. I organised social workers and paid doctors to help him because he had nothing left in his pocket after his illness.
After a few months, this good man recovered from his illness. His problem had been TB, not HIV. So we became good friends.
But when others who had deserted him tried to make new contact, it was too late for them. He has decided to go and teach in the United Kingdom.
We are still in contact; and when he does return to visit, he still shows love to all the people who deserted him.
SG Khumalo, Piet Retief